Iran Holds Anti-American Rally to Celebrate 1979 Seizing of U.S. Embassy

Iranians Burn US Flag APEbrahim Noroozi
AP/Ebrahim Noroozi
John Sexton

On Wednesday, Iran celebrated the 36th anniversary of the day in 1979 when Iranians seized the U.S. Embassy, took 52 American hostages, and held them for 444 days.

The government-sponsored rallies drew thousands of people, some holding signs in English that read, “Down with U.S.A.” Crowds, including school girls who were bused in for the event, chanted, “Death to America.”

The AFP published video showing an effigy of President Obama with blood dripping from his mouth and people burning U.S. and Israeli flags in the street. “People will not stop feeling animosity toward the American government just because we’ve accepted the nuclear agreement,” one woman at the rally told AFP.

A huge billboard in central Tehran mocked the raising of the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima.

The New York Times reporter Thomas Erdbrink captured photos of the rally:

The anti-American animus was not difficult to spot:

This video published by Ruptly TV shows scenes from the rally, including (near the end) images of the effigy of President Obama that was burned.

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