ONE of the Iranian student leaders in the 1979 US Embassy takeover has said he regrets the seizure of the diplomatic compound and the 444-day hostage crisis that followed.
Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s 40th anniversary of the attack, Ebrahim Asgharzadeh acknowledged that the repercussions of the crisis still reverberate as tensions remain high between the US and Iran over Tehran’s collapsing nuclear deal with world powers.
Asgharzadeh warned others against following in his footsteps, despite the takeover becoming enshrined in hard-line mythology.
He also disputed a revisionist history now being offered by supporters of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that they directed the attack, insisting all the blame rested with the Islamist students who let the crisis spin out of control.
“Like Jesus Christ, I bear all the sins on my shoulders,” Asgharzadeh said.
At the time, what led to the 1979 takeover remained obscure to Americans who for months could only watch in horror as TV newscasts showed Iranian protests at the embassy.
Popular anger against the US was rooted in the 1953 CIA-engineered coup that toppled Iran’s elected prime minister and cemented the power of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
The shah, dying from cancer, fled Iran in February 1979, paving the way for its Islamic Revolution.
But for months, Iran faced widespread unrest ranging from separatist attacks, worker revolts and internal power struggles.
Police reported for work but not for duty, allowing chaos like Marxist students briefly seizing the US Embassy.
Then-president Jimmy Carter allowed the shah to seek medical treatment in New York. That lit the fuse for the November 4 1979, takeover, though at first the Islamist students argued over which embassy to seize.
A student leader named Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who later became president in 2005, argued they should seize the Soviet Embassy compound in Tehran as leftists had caused political chaos.
But the students settled on the US Embassy, hoping to pressure Carter to send the shah back to Iran to stand trial on corruption charges.
Asgharzadeh, then a 23-year-old engineering student, remembers friends going to Tehran’s Grand Bazaar to buy a bolt cutter, a popular tool used by criminals, and the salesman saying: “You do not look like thieves. You certainly want to open up the US Embassy door with it.”
“The society was ready for it to happen. Everything happened so fast,” Asgharzadeh said.
“We cut off the chains on the embassy’s gate. Some of us climbed up the walls and we occupied the embassy compound very fast.”
Like other former students, Asgharzadeh said the plan had been simply to stage a sit-in. But the situation soon spun out of their control.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the long-exiled Shiite cleric whose return to Iran sparked the revolution, gave his support to the takeover.
He would use that popular angler to expand the Islamists’ power.
“We, the students, take responsibility for the first 48 hours of the takeover,” Asgharzadeh said.
“Later, it was out of our hands since the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the establishment supported it.
“Our plan was one of students, unprofessional and temporary.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here