Iranians Mark 1979 Embassy Seizure Amid Heightened Tensions with US and Israel

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — Thousands of Iranians took to the streets on Tuesday to commemorate the 1979 storming of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, a ritual that has become an annual symbol of the Islamic Republic’s enduring hostility toward Washington. This year’s event carried particular intensity, coming just five months after a brief war with Israel in which U.S. forces joined strikes on Iranian nuclear and military facilities.

Participants displayed replicas of missiles, mock uranium centrifuges, and effigies of the U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hanging from a crane, evoking the public executions sometimes staged in Iran.

Demonstrators chanted “Death to America, death to Israel!” and sang revolutionary songs, with some dressing as Israeli soldiers and pretending to mourn over coffins draped with the Star of David.

"America's hostility towards us will never end," said Malek, 57, a labourer who declined to give his full name. "America's job is to deceive."

Although the November 4 rallies are held annually, many participants said the climate this year felt different. “This year the country is under a bit of pressure from its two arch foes,” said 15-year-old student Mohammad Hossein, standing beside a friend wearing Nike sneakers, an American brand banned by Iranian authorities.

“We must be more visible so the authorities, the army, and others can feel at ease and know that we are behind them,” he added.

Seventeen-year-old Sareh Habibi described a personal connection to the recent conflict. “Our peers, teenagers, and the youth, were martyred, and somehow it seems like a mission on our shoulders to come to the demonstration,” she said.

Along the parade routes in Tehran and other major cities such as Mashhad, Kerman, and Rasht, organizers displayed models of missiles similar to those fired at Israeli cities during the mid-June conflict, alongside mock uranium centrifuges signaling Iran’s insistence on its right to develop nuclear energy. 

Participants also carried portraits of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and of Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader killed in an Israeli strike last year.

The commemorations come in the wake of the unprecedented mid-June strikes by Israel, which targeted Iranian military and nuclear facilities, killing dozens of senior officials and scientists. U.S. forces joined the attacks on three nuclear sites despite ongoing talks with Tehran over its atomic program.

“The feeling is much different this year because our country has been seriously attacked,” Habibi said, reflecting a broader sense of nationalism and defiance among participants.

The historical roots of the commemoration date back to November 4, 1979, when students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran less than a year after the Islamic Republic was established.

Dozens of American diplomats were held hostage for 444 days, marking a dramatic rupture in Tehran–Washington relations that endures today.

The animosity has persisted for decades, and Khamenei ruled out on Monday any cooperation with the United States until Washington changed its policy towards the region, including its support for Israel.

In a related development, French couple Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who were released from prison in Iran on Tuesday after more than three years in detention, are out on “conditional release” and remain on bail, the Iranian foreign ministry said.

“These two French nationals, jailed for a long time over national security infractions, have been released on bail by the judge in charge of the case and will be placed under surveillance until the next stage of the judicial proceedings,” ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement describing their “conditional release.”

As the chants of ‘Death to America, death to Israel!’ echoed through the streets of Tehran, the demonstrations underscored the Iranian government’s use of public events to project defiance and signal its regional stance.