Bicep/ARM XML parameter as string not parsed correctly - powershell

Question

In my Bicep file, I have a parameter:
#secure()
param securityToken string
This parameter is an XML value provided as a string from an environment variable, not read from a file. I have trouble correctly setting this parameter from my YML pipeline. I have this piece of code:
az deployment sub create --template-file main.bicep --parameters securityToken='<xml>'
Unfortunately, this returns an error:
< was unexpected at this time.
Ok, so I somehow have to escape this parameter? I also tried:
az deployment sub create --template-file main.bicep --parameters securityToken='<xml>'
But this gives the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.
So my questions is:
How can I provide an XML string parameter to my Bicep / ARM deployment?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Deployments to subscriptions need the --location <location> parameter, which is missing in the examples above.
When I run the following on Windows, Git Bash, the deployment succeeds.
az deployment sub create --location eastus --template-file main.bicep --parameters securityToken='<xml>'
Result
main.bicep
targetScope = 'subscription'
#secure()
param securityToken string
output exposedSecret string = securityToken

Answer 2

So I found the problem. Apparently, the < and > needs to be escaped, and I finally found out how: putting it between ". So, the value "<"xml">" did the trick. Now my working code is this:
$token = '<xml></xml>'
$token = $token .replace('<', '"<"') // = "<"xml>"<"/xml>
$token = $token .replace('>', '">"') // = "<"xml">""<"/xml">"
$token = $token .replace('""', '" "') // The double "" only escapes the " itself. Therefore, add an extra space: "<"xml">" "<"/xml">"