Iranians chanting “Death to America” yesterday rallied to mark both the anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy during the 1979 Islamic revolution and the imminent reimposition of US sanctions on Iran’s key oil sector.
Thousands of students in the government-organized rally in the capital, Tehran, broadcast live by state television, burned the US flag, an effigy of Uncle Sam and pictures of US President Donald Trump outside the leafy downtown compound that once housed the US mission.
Hardline students stormed the embassy on Nov. 4, 1979, soon after the fall of the US-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and 52 Americans were held hostage there for 444 days. The two countries have been enemies, on opposite sides of Middle East conflict, ever since.
Photo: AFP
Iranian state media said millions turned out for yesterday’s rallies in most cities and towns around the country, swearing allegiance to the clerical establishment and its hardline top authority, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The turnout figure could not be independently confirmed by reporters.
Rallies replete with “Death to America” chants are staged on the embassy takeover anniversary every year.
However, US-Iranian rancor is especially strong this time round following Trump’s decision in May to withdraw the US from world powers’ 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimpose sanctions on Tehran.
The deal brought about the lifting of most international financial and economic sanctions on Iran in return for Tehran curbing its disputed nuclear activity under UN surveillance.
The restoration of US sanctions today targeting Iran’s oil sales and banking sectors is part of a wider effort by Trump to force Tehran to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile programs outright, as well as support for proxy forces in conflicts across the Middle East.
The top commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said at the Tehran rally that Iran would resist and defeat a US “psychological war” and the return of US sanctions, meant to cripple the Islamic Republic’s oil exports and financial institutions.
“America has launched an economic and psychological war as a last resort... But America’s plots and its plans for sanctions will be defeated through continued resistance,” Jafari said.
In a speech on Saturday, Khamenei said Trump’s policies faced opposition around the world.
“America’s goal has been to re-establish the domination it had [before 1979] but it has failed. America has been defeated by the Islamic Republic over the past 40 years,” he said.
Iran is already in the grip of an economic crisis, and has seen sporadic protests in the past few months as Iranian officials have tried to downplay the sanctions and their effects.
The US has said the sanctions are not aimed at toppling the government, but at persuading it to radically change its policies.
Additional reporting by AP
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