TEHRAN – Tehran’s interim Friday prayers leader praised Iranians’ eye-catching rallies in the national day marking the 40th anniversary of the U.S. embassy takeover, calling the move the country’s second revolution. 

Kazzem Sediqi said the U.S. has not refrained from any plot to overthrow the Islamic Republic since 1979.

On November 4, 1979, a group of university students took over the embassy, which they believed had turned into a center of espionage planning to overthrow the nascent Islamic Republic. 

Documents found at the mission corroborated claims by the revolutionary students that Washington had been using the compound to hatch plots against Iran.

Sediqi said, “Takeover of the den of espionage not only was confirmed by Imam Khomeini but also Imam told that ‘you have seized good place and try not to miss it’.”

The Friday prayers leader further quoted Imam Khomeini as saying that the embassy takeover was the second revolution, as the first revolution was against tyrannical power inside the country and the second one was against the global hegemony. 

The date of the embassy capture in the Iranian calendar is known as Aban 13, which is now recognized as the day of campaign against “global arrogance”. 

He said, “People in over a thousand cities and towns nationwide took part in the Aban 13th rallies and shut the door to any new negotiations with the U.S.”

Demonstrators in Tehran gathered on Sunday outside the former U.S. diplomatic mission chanting slogans against the United States and Israel.

Similar rallies were held in more than 1,000 cities and towns across the vast country. The marchers chanted "Hayhat minna az-zilla” (Never to Humiliation).

 
MJ/PA