Iran marks 1979 takeover of US embassy, hostage crisis
TEHERAN: Reviving decades-old cries of “Death to America”, Iran marked the 40th anniversary of the 1979 student takeover of the US embassy in Theran and the 444-day hostage crisis that followed as tensions remain high over the country’s collapsing nuclear deal with world powers.
Demonstrators yesterday gathered in front of the former US embassy in downtown Teheran as state television aired footage from other cities across the country.
This year’s rallies come as Iran’s regional allies in Iraq and Lebanon face widespread protests.
The Iranian Consulate in Karbala, Iraq, a holy city for Syiahs, saw a mob attack it overnight.
The main event in Teheran yesterday was a rally by hardliners at the former embassy and an address by Iranian army commander General Abdolrahim Mousavi.
A billboard at Teheran’s Vali-e Asr Square, often used by hardliners to highlight their political views, showed people waving flags from around the world and cheering as an American flag burned. A caption on it read: “We are the superpower.”
What exactly led to the 1979 takeover of the embassy remained obscure at the time to Americans, who for months could only watch in horror as TV newscasts showed Iranian protests at the embassy.
Popular anger against the US was rooted in the 1953 CIA-engineered coup that toppled Iran’s elected prime minister and cemented the power of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
The shah, dying from cancer, fled Iran in January 1979, paving the way for the country’s Islamic Revolution.
But for months Iran faced widespread unrest, ranging from separatist attacks, worker revolts and internal power struggles.
Police reported for work but not for duty, allowing chaos to unfold, including for Marxist students to briefly seize the US embassy.
In this power vacuum, then President Jimmy Carter allowed the shah to seek medical treatment in New York. That lit the fuse for the Nov 4, 1979, takeover by Islamist students, who initially planned a sitin at the embassy.