Senior Iranian general: US in ‘strong decline’

A senior Iranian military official welcomed Thursday what he said was the “strong decline” of the United States, during celebrations marking the start of the 1979 US embassy siege.

“America is no longer number one and the first power of the world,” deputy Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami told thousands gathered outside the former US mission in Tehran.

“America’s political will can no longer manage political and military development in… the world of Islam. America’s political power has strongly declined.”

Every year on November 3-4, Iran celebrates the 444-day siege of the embassy when more than 50 diplomats, staff and spies were taken hostage by Islamist students demanding the extradition of the shah, who had fled to America after being deposed a few months earlier in the Islamic revolution.

The crisis severed US-Iranian diplomatic ties for decades, but Tehran last year clinched a deal with world powers to curb its controversial nuclear program in exchange for an easing of economic sanctions.

IRGC Deputy Commander Hossein Salami (YouTube screen capture)

Protesters on Thursday chanted the traditional rallying cries of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” and burned the US and Israeli flags. Posters of late president Shimon Peres were also set on fire during the rally.

But the US remains Iran’s main enemy, and Tehran and Washington back opposing sides in several regional conflicts, including Syria and Yemen.

“Our fight with the Americans will continue,” Salami said. “Pursuing our ideals in the world of Islam and in Iran, we will recognize no stopping point or red line.”

Iranians burn a poster late Israeli president Shimon Peres outside the former US embassy in Tehran on November 3, 2016. (AFP PHOTO / ATTA KENARE)

He also warned the US not to criticize Iran’s ballistic missiles, calling its system “the real center of our power (that) must be strengthened.”

On November 4, 1979, Iranian militant students stormed the US Embassy, taking 52 Americans hostage for 444 days after Washington refused to hand over Iran’s toppled shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, for trial in Iran.

The storming of the embassy led to the severing of diplomatic relations that continues to this day.