By Gary Raynaldo      DIPLOMATIC TIMES

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan warned U.S. President Donald Trump not to pull “the trigger of war in the Middle East at the insistence of Israel,” speaking  November 8 while on a visit to Iran. 

Farrakhan’s visit to Iran ignited a storm of controversy with many media outlets reported he chanted “death to America” and that he compared President Trump to Satan. 

The 85-year-old Farrakhan led  a group of Nation of Islam members on a tour of Iran as the Islamic Republic celebrates the anniversary of the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, just days before the Trump administration reimposes sanctions on Iran’s key oil sector. 

Farrakhan Denies Leading Chant “Death To America” In Iran Visit

“I never led a chant that called for the death of America or Israel, contrary to misreporting in U.S., British and Jewish publications and the intentional, malicious and false reinterpretation of my words. I am not and have never been an enemy to America, nor the people of America. However, I love America enough to speak unpleasant truths that are in the best interests of an erring nation that perhaps she may change her conduct and course.” 

Louis Farrakhan,   Nation Of Islam Statement. 

It is not the Iranians’ chants of “Death to America” that will bring down America, he told reporters in Tehran, but U.S. policies that will produce that result.   “I am begging our president and the government that supports him to be very, very careful,” Farrakhan said. “Because if the trigger of war in the Middle East is pulled by you, using your surrogates at the insistence of Israel, then the war will trigger another kind of war which will bring China, Russia, all of the nations into a war.”