Iranians mark anniversary of 1979 Islamic Revolution as they face new Trump term
Ten of thousands rally in Tehran with banners of ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’; one display depicts US president and Netanyahu behind bars
Tens of thousands of Iranians marked the anniversary of the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the first such rally since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House and restarted his “maximum pressure” campaign targeting Tehran.
The annual commemoration of the end of the rule of the American-backed shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the creation of Iran’s Shiite theocracy comes this year as deep uncertainty lingers across the country.
Iran faces crushing sanctions wrecking its economy and the threat of more coming from Trump, even as the American president suggests he wants to reach a deal with Tehran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday criticized proposed talks with the United States and described negotiations with America as “not intelligent, wise or honorable.” Khamenei also suggested that “there should be no negotiations with such a government,” though stopped short of issuing a direct order not to engage with Washington.
In Tehran, people carried flags, balloons, and banners as they marched toward Azadi, or Freedom, Square in the Iranian capital despite subzero temperatures.
Alongside anti-American and anti-Israeli banners with slogans like “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” demonstrators also carried images of Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters.
People took selfie photographs in front of a pickup truck carrying men wearing masks of Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu behind bars, and a demonstrator held up a poster reading, “We are going to wipe out Israel.” Iran’s military displayed replicas of some of its missiles at the square.
Over the past year, Iran twice fired massive barrages of missiles and drones at Israel in a spillover from the war in the Gaza Strip which started with the invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, led by Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas. The next day, Iran’s Lebanese proxy terror group Hezbollah began attacking across Israel’s northern border in a conflict that spiraled into open war.
Both Iranian assaults were largely thwarted by Israel’s air defenses in cooperation with the US and its regional allies. Israel twice bombed Iran in response, the second time destroying much of its air defense systems as well as some rocket and drone manufacturing sites.
War with Hezbollah ended with a ceasefire in November and the war in Gaza reached a complex, three-phase ceasefire which is still being negotiated but last month stopped the fighting.
In Tehran, Mohsen Amini, a 48-year-old teacher, said, “I know there are a lot of economic problems in the country, but I am here to say we will support our country regardless of threats by Trump and Israelis.”
Hamideh Zamani, a 31-year-old homemaker wearing a flowing black Islamic chador, attended the rally with her two children.
“We will resist any threat by the West without any fear,” she said. “We learned this from our fathers to devote ourselves for the cause of the Islamic Republic.”
The celebration is also the first after President Masoud Pezeshkian came to power in July following the death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last May. Pezeshkian is scheduled to give a speech later for the crowd in Tehran.
Iranian state television aired commemorations at sites across the country, urging more people to turn out. The day, an official holiday, takes on a festival feel, with schools and government offices closed, and workers out in the streets.
The Islamic Revolution began with widespread unrest in Iran over the rule of the shah who, terminally and secretly ill with cancer, fled Iran in January 1979. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini then returned from exile and the government fell on Feb. 11, 1979, after days of mass demonstrations and confrontations between protesters and security forces.
Later in April, Iranians voted to become an Islamic Republic, a Shiite theocracy with Khomeini as the country’s first supreme leader.
Months later, when the United States allowed the shah into the country for cancer treatment in New York, anger boiled over in Tehran leading to the takeover of the US Embassy in November 1979 by militant students. The subsequent 444-day hostage crisis at the embassy in Tehran kindled decades of enmity.
