Iran marks anniversary of US Embassy seizure

Hard-line students burned US flags today and effigies of US President George Bush to mark the 25th anniversary of the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran.

To chants of “Death to America”, around 3,000 students gathered outside the former embassy in Tehran to mark the anniversary of militant students’ storming of the building where they held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

The demonstration, which broke up peacefully in about three hours after students prayed together, took place as US election results showed a narrow lead for President Bush against Senator John Kerry.

The US has never restored diplomatic relations with Iran after the embassy takeover.

Today, the two countries are at odds over Iran’s nuclear programme. Tehran maintains it is geared solely for peaceful energy purposes, but the US has been driving international concern that Iran is secretly trying to build a nuclear bomb.

Iranians also have historical grievances against the US.

Iran blames the CIA for helping topple the elected government of Mohammad Mosaddiq in the 1950s and blames the US for openly supporting the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi against the 1979 popular Islamic revolution that led to the collapse of the dynasty.

Iranians also condemn Washington for arming and supporting former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

Demonstrators today justified the 1979 embassy takeover, saying in a statement there was no other option “given various acts of interference in Iran’s internal affairs by the US”.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has characterised the U.S. Embassy seizure as “the outcome of the wrath” of a nation protesting three decades of US acts of interference in Iran’s internal affairs.