Iran marks 1979 embassy takeover anniversary with rallies after US midterm defeat for Trump

Anniversary rallies in Tehran

Thousands of people marched through central Tehran on Wednesday, 4 November, toward the former US embassy to mark the 47th anniversary of its seizure by students in 1979. Iran calls the day the National Day of Struggle against Global Arrogance, and this year's slogan was a commitment to the martyrs. In 1979 students took 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage for 444 days, and Tehran and Washington have had no formal diplomatic relations since. Protesters carried placards reading "Down with the United States" and "Free Palestine", along with caricatures of Donald Trump captioned "Terrorists are not allowed in". Chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" rang out as US and Israeli flags were set alight, and similar demonstrations took place in other Iranian cities.

A midterm defeat and a war

The rallies came a day after the US midterm elections, in which Democrats regained control of both chambers of Congress, leaving Trump facing an opposition-controlled legislature for the last two years of his second term. Iranian officials framed the outcome as a defeat for Washington, linking it to the war that the United States and Israel launched on 28 February. That war disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the conflict. Republicans, including Vance and Trump himself, tied the midterm setback to public discontent over the conflict in Iran. At the rally, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani told the crowd that the US and Israel had suffered a "decisive defeat", including in the midterms, and credited Iranian "steadfastness and strength". Judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi echoed the message on X.

“Trump failed both in war and in politics. We will certainly impose even more defeats upon him.”

Threats, talks and strikes

Tehran has warned that it could use "new weapons" against the US if Trump chooses to betray voters and launch strikes. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, wrote on X that Iran had inflicted a strategic defeat on Trump on the battlefield and in the Strait of Hormuz, and a political defeat in Washington. Supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, named in March after his father's killing and not seen in public since, said in an anniversary message that anyone hoping US policy would shift with a change of party was badly mistaken. He warned that a renewed war would be broader than the fighting so far. In the days before the anniversary, contacts intensified with Qatari mediation and an exchange of proposals. Iran's seven-point plan calls for a regional ceasefire including Lebanon, guarantees against new attacks, the lifting of the US naval blockade and the removal of sanctions. Mohamed Ghalibaf, Iran's chief negotiator and parliament speaker, wrote on X that Iran backed the message Americans sent by rejecting war, and warned that Washington would find Iran's rejection came with a nightmare. US forces struck Iranian territory on Tuesday, the first such attack in two months.

Scenes from the streets

Posters outside the former embassy, now a museum, read "We will kill Trump" according to the Spanish agency EFE, while others showed a bullet passing through his blond hair and figures of him behind bars or in chains. Caricatures portrayed him as a pig, and an effigy of Trump as a ferocious dog held on a leash by Netanyahu was paraded through the streets. A 34-year-old woman, a housewife, told EFE that Trump's humiliation in the elections was a victory for the Iranian people. She expected US attacks to resume within days or weeks but said she did not fear a new offensive. Many residents of Tehran, by contrast, fear that strikes will be resumed.