Iran marks 45 years since U.S. embassy takeover with massive anti-American rally
Tens of thousands of Iranians flooded the streets of Tehran on Tuesday to commemorate 45 years since the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy — an event that remains a defining moment in Iran’s revolutionary history and its enduring hostility toward Washington.
The anniversary, once marked as a solemn remembrance, has evolved into an annual display of defiance against the United States and Israel. This year’s march unfolded in an especially charged atmosphere, as the Middle East faces renewed instability following months of military confrontations between Iran, Israel, and U.S. forces.
Anti-American Chants and Symbolic Displays
Crowds of students and clerics chanted “Death to America! Death to Israel!” while burning American and Israeli flags. Effigies of former U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were hung from cranes — a theatrical gesture replicating Iran’s notorious public executions.
Participants, many dressed as Israeli soldiers, carried coffins draped with Israeli flags, symbolizing what they called “revenge” for the losses suffered by Tel Aviv during the recent Gaza and Iran conflicts.
“Our country was attacked brutally. Young people our age were killed. It’s our duty to be here,” said Sareh Habibi, a 17-year-old student, as she marched alongside mock ballistic missiles emblazoned with the slogan “We love fighting the Zionist regime.”
Tensions Resurface After Summer Airstrikes
The demonstrations come just months after a devastating Israeli airstrike on June 13 killed dozens of Iranian nuclear officers and researchers. Tehran’s retaliation sparked a 12-day military standoff that drew in the United States, which carried out three separate airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
These events have reignited nationalist sentiment and anti-Western fervor across Iran, turning the November 4 commemoration into both a memorial and a protest against foreign interference.
Nuclear Imagery and Political Messaging
Organizers of the rally erected mock nuclear centrifuges to assert Iran’s “sovereign right” to develop its nuclear program. Tehran continues to insist the project is for civilian purposes, while Western governments suspect covert military ambitions.
Images of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and figures of the so-called “Axis of Resistance,” including the late Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah — killed last year in an Israeli airstrike — were displayed prominently throughout the capital.
The Lasting Symbol of a Diplomatic Rupture
On November 4, 1979, Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 American diplomats hostage for 444 days. The crisis triggered a complete diplomatic breakdown between Iran and the United States — a rift that persists more than four decades later.
Speaking on the anniversary, Ayatollah Khamenei reaffirmed that Tehran will not engage with Washington as long as it supports Israel.
“The hostility of the United States toward Iran will never end. They will always try to undermine us,” said one protester, echoing the dominant sentiment in the crowd.
The demonstration served as both a reaffirmation of Iran’s revolutionary identity and a message to the world: the confrontation with the West remains deeply ingrained in the country’s political DNA.
