Iranians Stage Nationwide Rallies to Mark National Day against Global Arrogance

Huge crowds of Iranian people, mainly comprised of school and university students, staged nationwide demonstrations this morning in more than 770 cities around the country to express their strong opposition to the arrogant attitudes of the enemies, particularly the US.

The “National Day against Global Arrogance” has its roots in a historical movement by a group of Iranian students some 30 years ago.

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 who seized 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.

In the capital city of Tehran, the rallies to mark the anniversary of the landmark move are held at the venue of the former US embassy, which is known by Iranians as “Den of Espionage”.

This year’s huge demonstrations are held while Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei on Sunday described the US as the most hated power in the world, saying that its hegemonic attitude has caused other nations to develop enormous aversion and distrust to that country.

“Experience has proved that every nation and government which trusts the US, will sustain damage, even if it is a friend of the US,” the Leader told a large gathering of Iranian students here in Tehran on Sunday.

Ayatollah Khamenei also touched upon the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran by the Iranian students in 1979, and added that the US embassies in the European countries are now being referred to as “den of espionage,” something the Iranians first used more than 30 years ago.

“This issue reveals that our youths were beyond the calendar of world’s history for more than thirty years,” the leader pointed out.

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 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."