Iran celebrates 1979 US Embassy takeover amid nationwide anti-govt protests

Iran held state-sponsored annual rallies on Friday marking the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran, as the clerical establishment that has ruled since then struggles to suppress nationwide protests calling for its downfall.

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   Iran on Friday marked the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran as its theocracy faces nationwide protests after the September death of a 22-year-old woman who was arrested by the country’s morality police. (Reuters)

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   Iranian state-run television aired live feeds of various commemorations around the country, with some in Tehran waving placards of the triangle-shaped Iranian drones Russia now uses to strike targets in its war on Ukraine. (AP Photo)

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   But while crowds in Tehran looked large, other commemorations in the country appeared smaller, with only a few dozen people taking part. (Reuters)

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   Iran’s relations with US underwent a radical change after the Islamic revolution which led to overthrow of Iranian ruler Mohammad Reza Shah Pehalvi, who had been close to successive US administrations, which had produced hostility among Iranian leaders. (Reuters)

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   On November 4, 1979, radical Iranian students stormed the embassy soon after the fall of the US-backed Shah, angered by then-President Jimmy Carter allowing the fatally ill Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to receive cancer treatment in the United States. In Pic: An anti-U.S. placard held up by a protestor during an annual demonstration in front of the former US Embassy in Tehran, on Nov 4, 2022. (AP Photo)

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   52 Americans were held hostage in the embassy for 444 days. A few staffers fled and hid in the home of the Canadian ambassador to Iran before escaping the country with the help of the CIA, a story dramatised in the 2012 film “Argo.” In Pic: Indian Express front page on November 7, 1979. (Express Archive)

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    Iran finally let all the captives go the day Carter left office on Ronald Reagan’s inauguration day in 1981. (Reuters)

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   That enmity between Iran and the US has surged over the decades since. (AP Photo)

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   The US and world powers reached a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 that drastically curtailed its program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. However, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018, sparking years of tensions since. (Reuters)

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   A wave of protests swept Iran since Mahsa Amini’s, death in police custody in September, after being arrested for being inappropriately dressed. (AP Photo)

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   Meanwhile on Friday, US President Joe Biden in a recent rally in California stopped his speech & held up cellphones displaying the message “FREE IRAN.” (AP Photo)

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   “Mr. President! Iran was liberated 43 years ago, and it’s determined not to become your captive again. We will never become a milking cow,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said in response. (AP Photo)