TEHRAN -- Rallies were held across Iran on Sunday to mark the 1979 takeover of the United States embassy in Tehran, known as the National Day of the Fight against Global Arrogance.
In the capital, tens of thousands chanted “death to America” and “death to Israel” at the gate of the former embassy which has not been used since the takeover. 
Some carried images of top figures of the regional resistance movements assassinated by Israel, including Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Forty-five years ago, students stormed the embassy soon after the fall of the U.S.-back Shah of Iran, the country’s last monarch.
They held over 50 diplomats hostage for 444 days over fears of a second coup similar to the one in 1953 that toppled the democratically-elected government of Muhammad Mosaddegh. 
The commemoration came a day after Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei pledged that Iran will definitely give a “teeth-breaking” response to the U.S. and Israel following an aerial aggression against military bases and other locations in Iran.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the Iranian nation will never forget the U.S.’s dark history of “destabilizing” interventions in the country. 
“Our nation cannot afford to forget the U.S.’s long and dark history of unlawful and destabilizing interventions,” he said in a post on his X account.
Baghaei said that Iranians will always remember “the 1953 USA- and British-instigated coup d’état that overthrew Iran’s first democratically elected government and reinstated the monarchical dictatorship, and the U.S.’s all-out support for Saddam regime during 8 year-long imposed war.”
In August 1953, the CIA and the UK’s MI6 spy agency initiated the coup with the help of the Iranian military. 
The historic overthrow marked a watershed in Iranians’ mistrust of the United States and Britain.
Baghaei commemorated the national day as a reminder of the collective epic struggle by the Iranian nation to live in dignity and freedom without any foreign interference and domination.
 “The U.S.’s unlawful interference and cruel pressures against Iran continue up to now, including in the form of inhuman sanctions and unlimited support for Israeli rogue behavior,” Baghaei said.
He, however, emphasized that Iranians have learned that steadfastness and perseverance by counting on national potentials and capabilities are necessary to live in dignity and preserve national sovereignty and territorial integrity.