Supporters of the Iranian regime gathered outside the former U.S. embassy in Tehran on Sunday to mark the anniversary of the 1979 hostage crisis with shouts of “Death to Israel, Death to America!”
The former embassy is now a museum called the “Den of Spies” and is covered with anti-American murals.
The crowd also set Israeli and American flags on fire in the annual tradition.
IRGC chief Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, in a speech at the Tehran rally, said that Israel and the U.S. “cannot survive by slaughtering and killing Muslims.
“We always warn them that if they don’t change their behavior, they will go toward collapse and destruction,” Salami said.
Iranians took over the U.S. embassy in Iran on Nov. 4, 1979, and kept 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage for 444 days. The hostage crisis ended on Jan. 20, 1981, when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as president of the United States. No hostages were killed.
Washington severed ties with Tehran in 1980, halfway through the crisis, and they have been frozen ever since.