Iran lawmakers raise missile spending amid 'Death to America' chant

Chanting "Death to America," Iran's parliament voted unanimously today to increase spending on its ballistic missile program and the foreign operations of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, part of a sanctions bill mirroring a new U.S. Law targeting the country.

While offering hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding, the lawmakers' bill offered a tactic as old as the slogan shouted since the 1979 Islamic Revolution - using America's own tactics against it.

The vote salves public anger in Iran over US President Donald Trump's constant threats to renegotiate or abandon the nuclear deal struck by world powers under his predecessor.

While lawmakers stressed the bill wouldn't violate that agreement, it ensures those both home and abroad know Iran will continue confronting America either in the Persian Gulf or legislatively, analysts say.

"They want to show that the pressure that the US is exerting on Iran, they can respond with similar measures," said Adnan Tabatabai, an Iran analyst based in Germany who is the CEO of the Centre for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient. "It's not that important that those measures may not hurt the US in the same way. ... They want to show they are not just standing still and watching this happening."
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