Hundreds of thousands of people rallied through Tehran and other cities waving Iranian flags and chanting “Death to America!” on the 34th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, when the US-backed leadership was overthrown.
The demonstrators also chanted “Death to Israel” as they were marching towards center of Tehran. Many were carrying portraits of the revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the country`s current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.The government-sponsored rally gathered at the landmark Azadi [Freedom] Square, where the country`s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the crowds speaking about Iranian`s controversial nuclear program."Iran has become nuclear, and so Iran's enemies are unhappy," he said. "Today the enemies are trying their utmost to put pressure on the Iranian nation to stop its progress, but they will not succeed," Ahmadinejad continued speaking about the range of sanctions imposed on Tehran by the West.The US has been most active in sanctioning Iran to curb its nuclear program, which Washington suspect might be military-oriented. Tehran, however, insists that uranium enrichment in the country is done for peaceful purposes.Similar rallies were held across the country in the large provincial capitals and smaller cities.Foreign media in the country are only allowed to cover the event from officially proposed angle, Al Arabiya reported.On February 11, 1979, US-backed Iranian leader Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlav was overthrown after the army declared solidarity with people who supported Khomeini becoming the country’s supreme leader.In the November of the same year Islamist students calling themselves ‘Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line’ breached in the US embassy in Tehran taking 52 US diplomats hostage. The siege at the embassy continued for 444 days.