Iranians take to the streets to celebrate the 1979 hostage taking

Thousands of Iranians gathered in the center of the capital Tehran and across the country on Sunday to mark the 45th anniversary of the 1979 US embassy hostage crisis.

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

Many of them held signs with slogans “Death to America” and “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.

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 countrynotably in Shiraz (south), Abadan (southwest), Bandar Abbas (south) and Sari in the north.

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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 Tehranaccused 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. (ats/vz)

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