TEHRAN, Nov 5 (NNN-TASNIM) – Iranians held demonstrations nationwide on Monday, to mark the 40th anniversary of the seizure of former U.S. embassy in Tehran.
In the capital, demonstrators gathered outside the former U.S. embassy, now called “den of espionage,” carrying placards condemning U.S. policies.
They also chanted slogans against the United States and Israel and set their flags on fire.
President Hassan Rouhani said, “The U.S. government realised that its pressures, including those of sanctions, against the Islamic republic have been a failed policy.”
The anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. embassy in 1979, “has been designated as the national day of fight against global arrogance, in order to enlighten Iranian generations on the long history of resistance and popular struggle against foreign plots,” Rouhani was quoted as saying.
Yahya Rahim Safavi, top military aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that, Washington’s anti-Iran policies have failed and the “U.S. hegemony is collapsing” in the region.
The occasion to mark the anniversary of the embassy seizure this year comes, amid escalation of tensions between Washington and Tehran, and the mounting sanction pressures of U.S. President, Donald Trump’s administration against the Islamic republic.
On Monday, the U.S. sanctioned nine Iranian individuals, including Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff, one of Iran’s Supreme Leader’s sons, and the head of Iran’s judiciary.
The White House also imposed sanctions on Iran’s construction sector on Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said, Iran’s construction sector is heavily influenced by Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), an elite part of Iran’s army which Washington has announced as “a terrorist group.”
Meanwhile, Iran unveiled new murals and paintings on the walls of the former U.S. embassy in Tehran, displaying Iran’s resistance against U.S. pressures.
Khamenei rejected any negotiations with the United States, saying that, negotiations with the United States will open Americans’ infiltration into the country.
The former U.S. embassy was stormed by Iranian students on Nov 4, 1979, and its personnel were held hostage for 444 days. The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Iran in 1980, and ties between the two countries have since remained severed.– NNN-TASNIM