Thousands of Iranians take to the streets to commemorate the anniversary of the 1979 hostage taking
Thousands of Iranians gathered in the center of the capital, Tehran, and across the country on Sunday to celebrate the 45th.my 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. Many of them carried signs with slogans. “Death to America” AND “Death to Israel” in Persian and English.
In front of the crowd in Tehran, General Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, lashed out at the United States and its Israeli ally. Israelis and Americans “They 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.
Since Saturday morning, state media broadcast revolutionary anthems denouncing the “crimes” of the United States against Iran. Similar protests took place in many other cities in the country, including Shiraz (south), Abadan (southwest), Bandar-e Abbas (south) and Sari in the north.
On November 4, 1979, less than nine months after the overthrow of the last Shah of Iran, a group of students supporting the Islamic Revolution stormed the United States embassy in Tehran, accused of being a “nest of spies”. To free the hostages, they demanded that the United States extradite the shah so he could stand trial in Iran. 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.
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