News / Interviews

Iranians defy US sanctions through annual demos: Pundit

Sunday, 04 November 2018 1:47 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 04 November 2018 1:51 PM ]

The mass rallies across Iran marking the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran indicate Iranians’ resistance to Washington’s renewed sanctions, says an academic.

“This has high symbolism for Iran especially when the American sanctions will be in effect in the upcoming few hours and of course the Iranian people are declaring their position that they refuse these sanctions and that they will resist these sanctions and they will not bow to the American will to manipulate them … to surrender. So I believe that it has high significance these protests,” Jamal Wakim, professor at Lebanese International University, told Press TV in an interview on Sunday.

“I believe that it is a message of steadfastness that the Iranian people and the Iranian leadership will not abide by the American pressure to manipulate Iran and to throw its interests in some basic parts and vital parts in the Middle East and its will to resist any attempt to topple the Islamic regime in Iran,” he added.

On November 4, 1979, a group of university students took over the embassy, which they believed had turned into a center of espionage, plotting to overthrow the nascent Islamic Republic, and held 52 American diplomats for 444 days.

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

The late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, hailed the takeover as a “second revolution” after the 1979 Islamic Revolution toppled the Shah of Iran, who was a close ally of the US in Iran.

November 4, which falls on the 13th day of the Iranian calendar month of Aban, is also known as the Student Day and the National Day of the Fight against Global Arrogance.