Thousands of Iranians mark anniversary of 1979 US hostage taking

Thousands of Iranians gathered this Sunday, November 3, in the center of the capital Tehran and across the country to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the hostage taking at the United States embassy in 1979.

In front of the former American diplomatic representation, they brandished Iranian and Palestinian flags as well as those of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah supported by the Islamic Republic.

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Many of them held signs with slogans “Death to America” et “Death to Israel” in Persian and English.

In front of the crowd in Tehran, General Hossein Salami, the head of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, castigated the United States and its Israeli ally.

Israelis and Americans “cannot survive by massacring Muslims, we always warn them that if they do not change their behavior, they will go towards collapse and destruction”he declared during a speech broadcast on television.

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Since Saturday morning, state media have been broadcasting revolutionary anthems denouncing the « crimes » of the United States against Iran.

Similar protests took place in many other cities across the country, including Shiraz (south), Abadan (southwest), Bandar Abbas (south) and Sari in the north.

52 diplomats detained for more than a year

On November 4, 1979, less than nine months after the overthrow of the last shah of Iran, a group of student supporters of the Islamic Revolution stormed the United States embassy in Tehran, accused of being a “nest of spies”.

The students had demanded, to free the hostages, that the United States extradite the shah so that he could be tried in Iran.

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The crisis did not end until 444 days later, after the death of the deposed sovereign in Egypt, with the release of 52 American diplomats.

Washington subsequently severed diplomatic relations with Tehran, which have not been restored since, and imposed an embargo.

This Sunday morning’s rally took place at a time when Israel, the sworn enemy of the Islamic Republic, is at war against several of Iran’s allies: against Hamas in Gaza but also on its northern border against Hezbollah.

Shooting between Iran and Israel

On October 26, the Israeli army for the first time publicly admitted to having attacked military targets on Iranian territory, in an operation presented as retaliation for Iranian missile attacks against Israel on October 1.

Israel warned Iran against any response to these strikes, which killed at least four soldiers, according to Iranian authorities.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed Saturday to respond to any attacks by Israel and its ally the United States against Iran or its allied groups in the region.

For their part, the United States announced Friday new deployments in the Middle East, including defense means against ballistic missiles, combat planes and bombers, which will arrive “in the coming months” for the “defense of Israel” and as a warning to Iran.