Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has dismissed as a “lie” the US assertion that the 1979 takeover of their embassy in Tehran is what set off the ongoing dispute between Iran and the United States, saying the “starting point” of the row goes back to the CIA-orchestrated coup of 1953.
Faraan: Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks during a meeting with students from across the country on Wednesday, ahead of the national Student Day and the National Day of Fight against Global Arrogance, which Iranians celebrate on November 4. “Some think that America is an untouchable power, but if we look at the events of this day (November 4), it turns out that no, it is completely vulnerable,” he said.
The Leader was making a reference to the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran, also known in Iran as the “Den of Espionage,” less than a year after the Islamic Revolution toppled the US-backed Pahlavi dictatorship in 1979. He said November 4 — the 13th of Aban — is a historic day which will not be forgotten. “Use these experiences. The future belongs to you,” he told the students. “They say the reason the Americans stood against the Iranian people was the move you made in the embassy,” he said. “That is, ‘you attacked our embassy and a dispute emerged between us [which led to] a fight and an enmity.’ They lie. This is not the case.”
Rather, he continued, the beginning of disputes between Iran and the US was August 19, 1953, when the Americans staged a coup against the national government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. “Mosaddegh’s government was a national government. His problem with the Westerners was only the issue of oil. He neither was a Hojatoleslam (top Islamic cleric) nor did he promote Islam. The issue was just related to oil, which was in the hands of the British. He said that the oil should be in our hands. This was his only crime.”
He also said Mosaddegh made a mistake by trusting the Americans on the assumption that the Americans would support him against the British. But the Americans stabbed him in the back, he said. “They arrested Mosaddegh and his entourage and everyone [else],” he said. “Some were executed later, and some were imprisoned for many years.” “Our dispute with the Americans started that day. Now, American politicians are hypocritically and shamelessly saying that ‘we support the Iranian nation,’” Ayatollah Khamenei added.
The Leader recounted atrocities committed by the Americans against the Iranian nation over the last 70 years, saying that the nation, to the Americans’ chagrin, has thwarted all their enmities. He maintained that compared to the period of the 1953 coup, the Americans are now resosting to more complicated plots. “But we trust our youth and authorities and we know that they can overcome these complex methods.”
