With replicas of missiles on display and effigies of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu hanging from a crane, thousands of Iranians commemorated on Tuesday the 1979 storming of the US embassy in Tehran.
Five months after a brief war with Israel that saw the US join in with strikes on key nuclear facilities, demonstrators chanted “Death to America, death to Israel!” and sang revolutionary songs in a particularly charged outing for the annual event.
Though the commemorations are held annually, “this year, the country is under a bit of pressure” from its two arch foes, said student Mohammad Hossein, 15, standing next to a friend whose shoes bore the trademark swoosh of American apparel giant Nike.
“We must be more visible this year so that the authorities, the army and others can feel at ease and know that we are behind them,” he added.
Throughout the day, US and Israeli flags were burned and trampled, and participants dressed as Israeli soldiers pretended to mourn over fake coffins draped with the Star of David, mocking the country’s losses in Gaza.
The swinging effigies of Trump and Netanyahu, meanwhile, called to mind the public executions sometimes carried out by Iran.
“America’s hostility towards us will never end,” said Malek, 57, a labourer who declined to give his full name, adding “America’s job is to deceive”.
In mid-June, Israel launched an unprecedented wave of air strikes on targets across Iran, including military sites, nuclear facilities and residential areas, killing dozens of senior officials and scientists.
Over the course of the 12-day war that followed, Washington joined its ally in striking three nuclear sites, despite having been involved in ongoing talks with Tehran over its atomic programme.
– Missiles and centrifuges –
“Our feeling is much different (this year) because our country has been seriously attacked,” said Sareh Habibi, a 17-year-old student.
“Our peers, teenagers and the youth, were martyred, and somehow it seems like a mission on our shoulders to come” to the demonstration, she added.
Along the parade route, replicas of missiles — similar to the ones fired at Israeli cities during the war — were displayed bearing the slogan “We love to fight the Israeli regime”.
Mock uranium centrifuges were also set out, a nod to Iran’s insistence on its right to develop a civilian nuclear programme despite Western suspicions it is seeking a bomb — an accusation Tehran denies.
According to state media, similar commemorations took place in several other cities, including Mashhad in the northeast, Kerman in the south and Rasht in the north.
Some participants carried portraits of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while others hoisted the image of Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah who was killed in an Israeli strike last year.
On November 4, 1979, less than nine months after the overthrow of Iran’s monarchy and the establishment of the current Islamic republic, a group of students stormed the US embassy in Tehran, deeming it a “nest of spies”.
Several dozen American diplomats were held hostage, some for 444 days, marking a break between Tehran and Washington, which were previously allies.
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.
