IRGC Regards “Den of Espionage” as Applicable to All US Embassies
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Recent revelations that the US has been eavesdropping on foreign leaders and spying on the nationals of many countries have made many to associate US embassies in their countries with centers for espionage, an expression first used by Iranians, the IRGC said on Saturday.
“34 years after the takeover of the den of espionage in Tehran, disclosure of the White House’s shameful measures in monitoring telephone calls of top officials and ordinary people of other countries has made the 'espionage den' expression stick to US embassies all over the world,” the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said in a statement issued on Saturday ahead of the National Day against the Global Arrogance (November 4), which marks the day when Iranian university students stormed the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.
The US spying operations have targeted leaders and citizens of other nations including some of its close allies like Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
Former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden revealed that Washington has monitored the phone conversations of German chancellor Angela Merkel. The disclosure prompted the German chancellor to call US President Barack Obama to seek reassurance that her phone calls were no more targeted by US spying.
Reports of the US spying have stirred outrage in the countries that have been the target of the spying operations.
Recent revelations of spying and phone tapping by the US against many countries -- even its close allies -- carried out in large parts in its diplomatic missions, vindicate the Iranian nation's assertions that the US embassy in Tehran was a "den of espionage."
On November 4, 1979, and in less than a year after the victory of the Islamic Revolution that toppled a US-backed monarchy, Iranian university students that called themselves "students following the line of (the late) Imam (Khomeini)" seized the US embassy in Tehran.
The students justified the takeover by insisting that the compound had become a center of espionage and planning to overthrow the newly established Islamic system in Iran.
The students occupying the embassy later published documents proving that the compound was indeed engaged in plans and measures to overthrow the Islamic system.
Every year on the 13th day of the Iranian month of Aban (November 4), the Iranian nation, particularly the students, hold rallies across the country to mark the day.
