Iranians mark 1979 hostage crisis anniversary with protest outside former US embassy
Chants of ‘Death to America,’ ‘Death to Israel’ spread among protesters, who burn flags to celebrate standoff that brought an end to Iran’s relations with the US
Iranian demonstrators gathered on Sunday outside the former US embassy in Tehran to mark the anniversary of the 1979 hostage crisis that has for decades shaped relations between Washington and Tehran.
The hostage crisis began in November 1979 following the Islamic Revolution led by Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that ousted the Western-backed shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.
Students loyal to Khomeini stormed the embassy building and held 52 staff hostage for 444 days while demanding that Washington hand over Iran’s recently toppled shah, who was being treated in the United States for cancer.
Washington officially broke off relations with Tehran in 1980, midway through the crisis, and they have been frozen ever since.
“Death to Israel, death to America!” chanted crowds of Iranians outside the building, which is currently a museum known as the “Den of Spies,” and covered with striking anti-American murals.
Others burnt the Israeli and US flags.
Iranians have held the rallies annually since 1979.
Regional tensions have soared since the outbreak of war in Gaza last October, following the Hamas terror group’s assault on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed — most of them civilians — and 251 were seized as hostages.
Israel, an ally of the US and long-standing foe of Iran, has been battling Hamas in Gaza ever since. It is also fighting against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon to push the terror group back from the border and allow the safe return home of some 60,000 displaced people following a year of daily rocket and missile attacks on northern Israel.
On October 26, Israel conducted targeted airstrikes on military sites in Iran in response to the massive ballistic missile attack launched by Tehran on October 1. Iran said at the time that its attack had been retaliation for the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in September.
Israel has warned Iran against responding to its attack.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed on Saturday a harsh response against Israel and the US to attacks on Iran and its allies.
“The enemies, both the USA and the Zionist regime, should know that they will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing against Iran, the Iranian nation and the resistance front,” Khamenei said in a speech to students in Tehran.
Sunday’s event took place days ahead of the US elections pitting Republican former president Donald Trump against Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris.
