TEHRAN — Millions of Iranians took to the streets in some 800 cities and towns Saturday to mark the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” while condemning Washington’s support of Israel as it goes on with its massacre of the Palestinians.
Shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution toppled the Western-backed shah, Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held more than 50 Americans for 444 days.
The rally came as the occupying regime of Israel’s ruthless killing of Palestinians entered its fourth week.
People assembled outside the former U.S. embassy in Tehran, with some burning American and Israeli flags.
Protesters stomped on images of extremist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden. Others carried banners calling the U.S., “Great Satan.” The banner on the main podium read: “We trample America under our feet.”
Parliament speaker, Muhammad Bagher Ghalibaf, addressed the crowds while denouncing U.S. support of Israel. “We consider the criminal U.S. a principal culprit in all these crimes,” in Gaza and against Palestinians, he said.
Ghalibaf said the Hamas operation against the Zionist regime has caused “irreparable” intelligence and security damage to Israel.
In a statement published at the end of the commemoration, protesters called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and warned the U.S., Britain and France that the crisis might expand in the region.
The statement ended with a pledge that Iranians would stand by the Palestinians “until final victory.”
“For more than three weeks, educational centers in Gaza have been subjected to the most brutal rocket attacks by the Zionist regime, and as a result, more than three thousand children have been martyred and hundreds of thousands of students have been displaced.
“This level of brutality in shedding the blood of innocent people who have taken refuge in the hope of respecting international laws in not attacking schools is unprecedented.
“Once again, the arrogance of the US and its western allies
is revealed in their all-out support of the child-killing Zionist regime,” the statement said.
They also censured Western media attempts to distort reports of Israeli crimes and atrocities in Gaza.
“Despite the efforts of the Western media in distorting and attenuating the crimes of the Zionist regime, freedom-seeking people were able to bring the events to the world’s attention through social networks and explanation,” the communiqué said.
“This action removed the mask from the face of the child-killing Zionist regime and its supporters, and the truth of the oppression of the Palestinian people has been revealed to everyone,” it added.
The Iranian students called on the justice-seeking people of the world to ramp up pressure on Western politicians by explaining, narrating and expanding the pro-Palestine gatherings, and demanded an immediate stop to the bombing of the Palestinian people by the Zionist regime.
The demonstration began in Palestine Square in central Tehran. Protesters walked for nearly two kilometers till they reached the former U.S. embassy compound. National TV showed footage of similar rallies in other Iranian cities and towns.
The annual rally is a venue for anti-Western sentiments and usually draws huge crowds.
On Wednesday Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei slammed the U.S. for its support of Israel, saying the Zionist entity would have been paralyzed without American support.
He called for an end to the Israeli atrocities and for Muslim-majority nations to halt economic cooperation with the Zionist regime.