Iranians had every right to take over US embassy: Analyst

The 13th day of the Iranian calendar month of Aban, which falls on November 3, is known as the Student Day in Iran, marking the National Day of Fight against Global Arrogance. On this day 37 years ago, a group of Iranian university students took over the US embassy in Tehran, which had turned into a center of espionage aimed at overthrowing the Islamic Republic following the country’s Islamic Revolution earlier in 1979.

Press TV has spoken to Kevin Barrett, an author and Middle East expert, as well as Maxine Dovere, a journalist and political commentator, to get their take on this issue.

Barrett believes the US embassy in Iran was a “CIA station” which was used to “run the country” before the revolution, adding that Iranian students had every right to take it over. 

He also said the United States was using its embassy to essentially “dominate” and “exploit” Iran through the puppet government of the Shah whose “torturers were trained by the CIA.”

The analyst further stated the US is an “aggressive imperial power” which has been waging wars of “disguised aggression” throughout the world.

He also opined that the United States is “today’s supreme war criminal” which has been using the word “preemptive war” to legitimize its “naked undisguised aggressions” after the “neoconservative-Zionist coup d'état of September 11, 2001.”

“The neoconservatives in particular after their coup d'état on September 11, 2001 made it clear that any country in the world that seeks parity with the United States must be destroyed preemptively and that is essentially the situation we have today as the US Empire is out there crushing the Middle East, destroying all of Israel’s enemies through balkanization, through Oded Yinon Plan to break up these countries into smaller units along ethnic and sectarian lines, getting ready for a war with China and provoking a war with Russia through aggressive actions in Ukraine and through the destruction of Syria and threats against Russia when Russia comes to the defense of Syria,” he said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Barrett noted that both US presidential candidates are “quite horrific” in their policies toward the Middle East - namely Iran. 

He also asserted that Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei is “absolutely right” in saying that he cannot trust the United States and that Tehran has to “rethink” the opening it has had towards Washington.

Ayatollah Khamenei has warned that compromise with the United States will not resolve Iran’s problems as Washington has not set aside its hostilities towards the Iranian nation.

Meanwhile the other panelist on Press TV’s program, Maxine Dovere, mentioned that taking over an embassy is not “an acceptable diplomatic action” anywhere in the world. 

“An embassy is sacred ground for any country in any other country. Having a diplomatic dispute is certainly one of the things that happens in political and diplomatic life but taking over an embassy and holding diplomats hostage is not within the realm of normal political behavior,” she said.

According to the commentator, the United States and Iran need to come to “a civil understanding” and “a trust,” adding that part of this process is eliminating the shaky foundations that have existed until 2016. 

Elsewhere in her remarks, she dismissed the US election campaign as a “negative personality cult” which has not concentrated on policy, economics, and foreign relations.

She also said all the important issues that a president eventually has to deal with seem to have gotten lost in this election campaign.  

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