Iranians stage nationwide rallies to mark 1979 takeover of 'Den of Espionage'

Iranians of all walks of life have begun staging rallies across the country to mark the National Day of the Fight against Global Arrogance, shouting slogans against the US and Israeli regimes over their inhumane, hegemonic actions.

Forty-two years ago on November 4, Iranian students took over the American embassy in Tehran, also known in Iran as the “Den of Espionage,” less than a year after the Islamic Revolution toppled the US-backed Pahlavi dictatorship in 1979.

The occasion was then named the National Day of the Fight against Global Arrogance. November 4 also marks National Student Day.

Each year, Iranians commemorate the National Day of the Fight against Global Arrogance by staging rallies across the country. Last year’s events were canceled due to an increase in COVID-19 infections, this year’s events are being held across the nation while people observe health protocols.

Rallies kicked off in the capital, Tehran, and some 800 cities and towns across the country on Thursday morning.

Every year, demonstrators in Tehran gather outside the former headquarters of the US embassy, chanting “Down with the US” and “Down with Israel,” Washington’s closest ally, to show their anger with the actions of what is known in Iran as “Global Arrogance.”

Three major events on November 4

In a statement, the Iranian Army said Aban 13 (November 4) is reminiscent of three major events in Iran’s contemporary history.

It explained that on November 4, 1964, Imam Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Revolution in 1979, was sent to Turkey, where he began a life of more than 14 years in exile “due to the Pahlavi regime’s inability against the Imam’s determination.”

The Army then referred to the massacre of dozens of pupils during a protest on November 4, 1978 by the Shah regime’s forces as the day that “watered the seedling of the Revolution,” while describing November 4, 1979 as the day students foiled the enemy’s conspiracy by taking over the US embassy in Tehran.

Iran reaffirms support for resistance front

A statement was also read out during the nationwide events, reaffirming the Islamic Republic’s support for the cause of al-Quds and the Palestinian resistance, and also for the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement, Bahraini protesters and the popular Iraqi and Syrian forces.

They are the “powerful army of the Islamic Ummah (community)” against the “system of global domination and Zionism” and regional reactionary regimes, the statement said.

It condemned the normalization agreements between certain regional countries and Israel, urging those countries’ rulers to reconsider their decision and end their relations with the occupying regime.

Referring to the abject failure of the United States’ approaches and policies toward West Asia, especially those in Iraq and Syria, as well as its humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan, the statement said such recurring phenomenon is a symbol of the “acceleration of the US decline” and the outcome of regional nations’ resistance and perseverance under the Iranian-led discourse of resistance and unity against the Global Arrogance.

It called on regional nations to beware of the White House’s conspiracies, pointing to the latest terrorist attacks in Afghanistan’s mosques as an example.

Elsewhere, the statement highlighted the importance of using the classified documents acquired during the US embassy takeover for the purpose of familiarizing the younger generations of Iran with Washington’s conspiracies.

The Iranian administration and parliament should prevent “the evil, malicious, and criminal actions of the Americans in Islamic community from fading into oblivion,” it added.

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