IRAN | 04.11.2009 Consequences of 1979 hostage crisis still influencing US-Iran relations
Thirty years on from the capture of the US embassy in Tehran by Islamist students, the consequences of that event still reverberate through Iran and its relations with the United States.
The latent unease and unrest in Iran was once again visible Wednesday on the Islamic Republic’s Day of National Confrontation against World Imperialism – the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran by Islamist students in support of the Iranian Revolution.
Thousands of supporters of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad marked the 30th anniversary of the takeover of the US compound by filling the streets around the closed embassy in a state-organized anti-US rally chanting slogans such as “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”
Nearby, security forces clashed with opposition supporters and anti-Ahmadinejad protestors, still smarting from the disputed reelection of the president in June. The demonstrators, many of whom wore the green colors of failed presidential…
