The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a terrorist organization formally belonging to the Iranian armed forces, published a 26-page open letter to the American people on Tuesday inviting Americans to visit the Strait of Hormuz, insisting “death to America” did not mean Iran wished death on America, and suggesting the September 11, 2001, jihadist attacks were a “false-flag operation.”
The unhinged missive regularly condemned President Donald Trump as corrupt, “crass,” and “ignorant,” while elevating Iranian dictator Mojtaba Khamenei, the “supreme leader,” as an enlightened and benevolent leader. In reality, Khamenei has not been seen in public since he was named to succeed his father, nor is there any concrete evidence he is in charge of the country. Similarly, the IRGC condemned Trump for trusting family members with government positions, such as son-in-law Jared Kushner engaging in diplomacy, while omitting that Khamenei’s only known credential for becoming “supreme leader” was being the son of the prior dictator.
IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said in a press conference on Tuesday that the letter was an attempt to tug at the heartstrings of the American people and invite them to “better understand Iran’s views and positions.” According to state media, the spokesman argued that “the IRGC could have opted for short and immediate media content, such as social media posts, but instead chose to address the American people in a detailed and logical manner.”
The “logic” in question consisted of condemning the United States as an entity and referring to it, as Iranian officials often to, as “the Greater Satan;” reiterating to the American people the alleged superiority of the Quran; claiming that the Iranian people are united behind their oppressors, defying the common knowledge that Iranian officials killed thousands of people in January to suppress protests; falsely taking credit for the alleged destruction of America’s military presence throughout the Middle East; and an extended harangue about various medieval Shia personalities.
Much of the letter involved justifying the use of the chant “death to America,” implicitly inviting Americans to use it.
A large billboard depicting an armed member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) standing with one foot on American REMUS 600 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) at Venek Square in central Tehran, Iran, on September 28, 2026. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty)
“It should be fairly obvious that the phrase ‘Death to America,’ which Iranians have been chanting since the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, does not in any way express any ill will toward the American people,” the IRGC officials wrote. “Death to America’ is a prayer for the eradication of the diabolical ruling elite whose seat of power is the White House. It is a cry born of the pain of oppression.”
“In this light, the true meaning of ‘Death to America’ is ‘Death to the crimes perpetrated by the American elite,’” the letter continued. “It is, in a word, not an expression of ill will toward the American people.”
Similarly, the letter applauded protesters around the world who burned the American flag, claiming that they were “not hostile to the American people.”
The letter invited Americans to visit Iran, a dangerous prospect given that the Iranian Islamist regime has a long history of taking American citizens hostage, torturing them, and using them for ransom.
“You can make a short trip to any part of Iran you wish—possibly even the Strait of Hormuz—and personally ascertain for yourselves the verity of our assertions,” the letter claimed.
“If Americans could only come on a short trip to Iran, they would immediately realize that their officials and their media are lying to them about Iran,” it continued elsewhere. “Almost everything Americans are told about Iran—that it’s a dictatorship, that the government is massacring its own people, that Iran is scientifically backward and economically bankrupt, that the people have given up on their government, etc.—is a lie.”
Americans who have attempted to travel to Iran to “ascertain for themselves” have become the victims of horrific torture. A prominent recent example of this is Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, who was taken hostage from 2014 to 2016 and tortured, released as part of a trade situation during the administration of President Barack Obama. Iran has nationals of a wide variety of countries languishing in its prisons to be similarly used for ransom.
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The 26-page letter also included a litany of grievances against America, including that its government allegedly promotes “extramarital sexual relationships” on the internet, that it created the Sunni jihadist terrorist organization Islamic State (an offshoot of Al Qaeda, the organization responsible for the September 11 attacks), and that, according to “very smart experts,” American “intelligence agencies” orchestrated said September 11 attacks. The letter offers no evidence for its outlandish claims, urging Americans to take the IRGC at face value.
The letter concluded calling the United States a “Third World country” for selling oil – Iran’s top industry – and praising leftist “No Kings” rallies around America.
“Americans need to rise up and put an end to this miserable situation that their country, and the world at large, is facing,” the letter declared.
Equating Jesus Christ, the Son of God in the Christian faith, and the “Mahdi,” the apocalyptic “hidden Imam” the Iranian regime awaits, the letter asks Americans to stand “by our side as we are led by Mahdi and Christ toward final victory.”