Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told interviewer Tucker Carlson (pictured) that people shouldn’t take his country’s ‘death to America’ slogans literally – claiming the phrase is more about calling for a ‘death to bullying.’ Pezeshkian made the comment to the podcaster and former Fox News host, who wanted to know if Americans should fear the phrase calling for their country’s annihilation or having the U.S. referred to as the ‘great Satan.’

The Iranian president called it a ‘very wrong impression.’ ‘When they say death to the United States … they don’t mean death for the people of the United States or even to the officials of the United States,’ he said. ‘They mean death to crimes, death to killing and carnage, death to supporting, killing others, to insecurity and instability.’

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (pictured) has used the phrase, which has also broken out during rallies and speeches in Iran. ‘Yes, it will happen. Death to America will happen,’ Khamenei declared in 2022. Khamenei once again endorsed the chant in May, on the eve of nuclear talks with the U.S. that came before Israel began its bombing campaign targeting Iran’s missiles, nuclear sites, and nuclear scientists. ‘Your judgment is right,’ Khamenei told a crowd cheering the slogan in Tehran. ‘Americans support Israel’s crimes,’ he added.

Pezeshkian, in full spin mode, told Carlson that Iran has never invaded another country in 200 years. Carlson held a solemn expression but did not interrupt as he attempted to dispute the notion that Iranians wanted to harm Americans. ‘Have you ever heard [of] an Iranian killing an American? Have you heard that? Or a terrorist that was Iranian and he carried out a terrorist attack against the Americans? And no, it was your president who confessed that the Americas created the ISIS in our region and they were responsible for this wrong image that is portrayed of religion of the Muslims in the world.’

Iran-backed Hezbollah was responsible for the 1983 Beirut bombings of the U.S. Marine Barracks, according to U.S. intelligence, and U.S. prosecutors said the Iranian government backed an attempt to kill President Donald Trump last year. But Pezeshkian repeatedly disputed the chant is not aimed at ‘the American people or officials.’ Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, dismissed the Iranian president’s explanation in a post on social media. ‘They’ve killed more than 1,000 Americans. They fund terrorist groups all around the world. They tried to kill President Trump,’ Cotton said.

Pezeshkian also alleged that Israel, with U.S. support, tried to assassinate him. ‘Yes, they did try and acted accordingly but they failed,’ he said. ‘It was not the United States that was behind the attempt on my life. It was Israel. I was in a meeting … they tried to bombard the area in which we were holding that meeting,’ he said, speaking in his native Farsi, without elaborating on any evidence.

Israel killed multiple Iranian nuclear scientists during its air campaign last month. Trump at one point appeared to threaten the safety of the ayatollah when he knew of his whereabouts. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that ‘the administration continues to be in contact, both directly and indirectly, with Iranians,’ after Trump said Sunday he was working on a potential permanent deal with Iran.

The president had previously said an agreement wasn’t necessary, after Iran and Israel agreed to cease 12 days of fighting after the U.S. hit Iranian nuclear facilities. ‘The president is always interested in peace and diplomacy,’ Leavitt said.

Leavitt said the US attack ‘obliterated Iran’s nuclear capabilities,’ using the same word that Trump has used repeatedly. Carlson last month broke with Trump over Iran, saying he was ‘complicit’ in Israel’s attack, which came amid stalled US-Iran talks over its nuclear program. Trump told reporters last month that Carlson ‘called and apologized’ to him for some of his harshest commentary.