Page 7 - IRANRptNov19
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Terrible state of relations
‘Ban any talks’
World and in Iran”. Behnam Amini, who heads the museum at the embassy, was quoted by Fars news agency as saying the volunteer Basij paramilitary group had recruited artists “committed to the Islamic Revolution” to draw the 14 murals.
On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students seized the US embassy in Tehran and its staff. They demanded that Washington extradite the fled Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi to Iran for trial and return the wealth he had removed from the country. Some 52 of 66 Americans taken hostages were held captive for 444 days. They were released on January 20, 1981, following the election of Ronald Reagan.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remarked that the “US is now wilder and ruder” than it was 40 years ago as he reflected on relations with Washington on the eve of the anniversary of the storming of the embassy compound and the ensuing hostage crisis, Fars News Agency reported on November 3.
Relations between Iran and the US are in the worst state they have ever been since the embassy capture shortly after the Islamic Revolution because of US President Donald Trump’s decision in May last year to unilaterally walk out on the nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers and attempt to crush the Iranian economy with sanctions.
In an address to a gathering of religious students in Tehran, Khamenei said the Iranian revolution was entirely based on opposition to the hegemony of the US and that remained the case to this day as it was a fundamental tenet of the Islamic Republic’s philosophy.
“From the 1979 revolution, the US has resorted to every measure to harm the Iranian nation, such as plotting coups, provoking anti-Iranian moves and separatist movements and blockades,” Khamenei said. He said that Iran in response did not rest on its laurels but was proactive and “sent the US to the corner of the ring”.
“But the Islamic Republic’s most important response to the US plots has been that it has blocked the US’s way through for a renewed arrival and infiltration into the country,” the supreme leader emphasised.
The former US embassy has been under the control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) since it was taken over.
Khamenei, who referred to Iran and the US as “implacable foes” also said that Tehran would maintain its ban on talks with the US. That comes as another blow to efforts by the Trump administration to force Iran to the table with its sanctions-led “maximum pressure” campaign to renegotiate the nuclear deal, partly to place ultra-tough controls on Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile development programmes and partly with an eye on greatly restricting Iran’s role in Middle East affairs.
“One way to block America’s political infiltration is to ban any talks with America. It means Iran will not yield to America’s pressure. Those who believe that negotiations with the enemy will solve our problems are 100% wrong,” Khamenei, who is Iran’s top political authority, said, according to IRIB.
After the success in creating the Islamic Republic, the US embassy was
7 IRAN Country Report November 2019 www.intellinews.com
