Thousands of Iranians take to the streets to mark the anniversary of the 1979 hostage crisis

Photo: Atta Kenare Agence France-Presse People hold up a portrait of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally outside the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, as Iranians mark the 45th anniversary of the start of the Iran hostage crisis, Nov. 3, 2024.

Agence France-Presse

Published yesterday at 9:43 AM

• Middle East

Thousands of Iranians gathered in the center of the capital Tehran and across the country on Sunday to mark the 45th anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage-taking.

In front of the former US diplomatic mission, they waved Iranian and Palestinian flags as well as those of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, which is supported by the Islamic Republic.

Many of them held placards with slogans reading “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” in Persian and English.

In front of the crowd in Tehran, General Hossein Salami, the head of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Islamic Republic’s ideological army, lambasted the United States and its Israeli ally.

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The Israelis and Americans “cannot survive by slaughtering Muslims, we always warn them that if they do not change their behavior, they will go towards collapse and destruction,” he said in a televised speech.

Since Saturday morning, state media have been broadcasting revolutionary anthems denouncing the “crimes” of the United States against Iran.

Similar demonstrations have taken place in many other cities across the country, including Shiraz, Abadan, Bandar Abbas and Sari in the north.

On November 4, 1979, less than nine months after the overthrow of the last shah of Iran, a group of students supporting the Islamic Revolution stormed the United States embassy in Tehran, accusing it of being a “nest of spies.”

The students demanded that the United States extradite the shah to face trial in Iran.

The crisis would not end until 444 days later, after the death in Egypt of the deposed sovereign, with the release of 52 American diplomats.

Washington subsequently severed diplomatic relations with Tehran, which have not been restored since, and imposed an embargo.

Sunday morning’s rally took place at a time when Israel, the Islamic Republic’s sworn enemy, is at war with several of Iran’s allies: against Hamas in Gaza but also on its northern border against Hezbollah.

On October 26, the Israeli army publicly admitted for the first time to having attacked military targets on Iranian territory, in an operation presented as retaliation for Iranian missile strikes against Israel on October 1.

Israel warned Iran against any response to these strikes, which killed at least four soldiers, according to the authorities Iranian.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed Saturday to respond to any attack by Israel and its ally, the United States, against Iran or its allied groups in the region.

For its part, the United States announced Friday new deployments in the Middle East, including ballistic missile defenses, fighter jets and bombers, which will arrive “in the coming months” for the “defense of Israel” and as a warning to Iran.