Iranian Newspapers Commemorate Seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran
(Giant poster in Tehran's Vali-Asr Square, parodying Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima; Source:basijpress.ir)
On the 36th anniversary of the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran by a group of Islamist revolutionary students who called themselves Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, the front pages of Iranian newspapers was an interesting subject to look at. Ayatollah Khamenei's speech on the day before, October 3, 2015, was the top headline of most newspapers:
"The Struggle against Imperialism Is Backed by Reason and Experience" (Arman-e Emrooz), "Ignoring the Bigger Enemy and Engaging in Internal Fights Is a Big Mistake" (Afarinesh), "The [Iranian] Nation Will Not Extend Its Hand towards the US for Friendship" (E'temad), "US' Goals against Iran Have Not Changed" (Iran Daily), "Glossing Over the US Image Will Give It a Chance to Stab [Iran]" and perhaps the most important one, a clarification on the globally-famous "Death to America" chant: "This 'Death' Refers to American Policies, Not the American Nation" (Ebtekar).
Thirty-seven years after occupation of the US Embassy, the Den of Espionage in revolutionary lingo, the situation has turned somehow paradoxical: the majority of the occupation leaders have now turned into Reformists. They are not the passionate anti-Imperialists they used to be, and justify the occupation not through a revolutionary discourse, but based on the historical context. On the other hand, Principlists, whose spiritual leaders in the right wing of the Revolution were against the occupation, have now turned into vocal supporters of the seizure, criticizing the Reformists for their revisionist attitude.
Thus on the front page of the Reformist Bahar appears Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, one of the leaders of the seizure, quoted as: "Reopening of the US Embassy Will Not Happen during Our Lifetime". The Principlist Resalat, on the other hand, quotes another member of the Muslim Student Followers, former head of state-run TV Ezatollah Zarghami: "Asgharzadeh's Remarks Have Nothing to Do with Embassy Conquerors".
Kayhan, leading hardliner newspaper, quoted its editor-in-chief Hossein Shari'atmadari who in one of his typical sarcastic remarks slammed the Reformist "Revisionists [who] See the Walls of the US Embassy as Their Wailing Wall". Shargh's op-ed was penned by another well-known student activist of the time, Hossein Sheikholeslam, diplomat and advisor to Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani. Sheikholeslam gave his readers extensive historical context of US Imperialism after the Second World War and the trajectory that instigated the seizure of the embassy, calling the occupation "the natural reaction" to the US attitude in Iran. The struggle between Iran and the US is broader in scope compared to the early years of the Revolution, Sheikholeslam reminded, calling for vigilance against Washington's new plots.
The editorial of Jomhouri-ye Eslami, the newspaper that follows a traditional revolutionary line in foreign policy, reviewed the current conflicts in the Middle East, arguing that proxy wars of the recent years in the region are merely another ruse of the Imperialist powers, the US, the UK, France and Israel. "The struggle against Imperialism's new methods needs effective plans," the newspaper added, on the top of which should be "domestic unity, avoiding differences and full vigilance against enemies' machinations."
Masoumeh Ebtekar, Vice President and Head of Environmental Protection Organization, aka "Sister Mary" when she served as activist/interpreter during the hostage crisis also had things to say on the anniversary of the embassy conquest. Speaking to a group of media figures and students, Ebtekar explained how a key motive of the students who occupied the US Embassy in Tehran was to prevent a counterrevolutionary coup by the Americans, a pattern that they had witnessed in many other countries were anti-imperialist movements had triumphed. Ebtekar however slammed the "childish imitation" that took place 35 years later, when a number of Principlist students invaded the British Embassy in Tehran.