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Iranians mark 40th anniv. of US embassy takeover

Monday, 04 November 2019 4:20 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 04 November 2019 4:21 PM ]

Iranian protesters hold anti-US placards during a rally outside the former US embassy in the Iranian capital Tehran on November 4, 2019, to mark the 40th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis. (Photo by AFP)

Yusef Jalali

Press TV, Tehran

The former US embassy in Tehran was surrounded by millions of people who attended the nationwide rallies to mark the 40th anniversary of the US embassy takeover by Iranian students.

The national occasion saw Iranians across the country chant slogans against the US, while expressing their support for the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

On November 4, 1979, a group of university students spontaneously took over the US embassy which they believed had turned into a center of espionage against the newly established Islamic Republic. 52 American diplomats were held hostage for 444 days.

Documents and wiretapping equipment found at the political mission corroborated claims by the revolutionary students that the embassy staff had been plotting to overthrow the Islamic Republic.

Since that day Iranians refer to the US embassy as the den of espionage. After 4 decades anti American sentiments still run deep among these Iranians.

This as tensions between Tehran and Washington have never been higher, after the US's withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and the subsequent sanctions that have hit ordinary Iranians hard.

The United States' so called maximum pressure policy against Iran is taking a humanitarian form. The restrictions imposed on Iran's international banking transactions have prevented the country from importing vital medicine, cutting the access of thousands of Iranian patients to lifesaving medicines.

The White House's hostile rhetoric toward Iran is viewed as the reason why Iran is rejecting any calls for negotiation with the US. The history of US's relationship with Iran is marked by several events that have lead to an increasing distrust in Iran toward American governments.

Among them is the US led 1953 coup which toppled the first democratically elected prime minister as well as the US's full scale support for Iraq in its 1980-to-1988 war against Iran.

Today, these rallies have become an occasion to remember the US's untrustworthiness as the wall of distrust is still going higher.

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