Islamic Republic marked the 31st anniversary of the US embassy seizure last Thursday.
PressTV said “millions” of Iranians joined the celebrations across the country while its reporter at the embassy said “hundreds of thousands” were there, although only several thousand appeared to be milling about. Al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite station, said only “hundreds” gathered at the embassy.
In Tehran, the fare was the usual anti-American rhetoric dished out by the bucketful.
Ezzatollah Zarghami, the head of state broadcasting, was the main speaker at the embassy. He said the Americans are afraid of Iran’s growing regional influence and boasted that the American media fawned over President Ahmadip0nejad during every trip he makes to New York.
In Washington, former US hostage John Limbert said, “It’s long past time that both sides awake to the reality that 30 years of chest-thumping has produced little beyond sore chests. Past efforts to move the relationship to something more productive, however, have foundered on misunderstandings, mistrust and the assumption that anything the other side agrees to must be bad for us.”
Unlike last year, there was no Green Movement presence this year. But the opposition’s Jaras website praised the 1979 embassy seizure, calling it fitting revenge for Washington’s support of the Shah.