Iranians Burn U.S. Flags to Mark Embassy Seizure
Iranians Burn U.S. Flags to Mark Embassy Seizure
Thousands of Iranians chanting “Death to America” burnt U.S. flags on Friday to mark the 33rd anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, just days before the American presidential election.
The demonstrators also chanted anti-British and anti-Israeli slogans, and burnt Israeli flags, in front of the site of the former embassy, dubbed the “den of spies” by the authorities who sponsor the annual commemoration, an AFP photographer reported.
This year’s rally came just days before Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election in which Republican challenger Mitt Romney has made Iran’s controversial nuclear program a top foreign policy issue.
“The greatest threat the world faces is a nuclear Iran,” Romney said in a campaign debate with Democratic incumbent Barack Obama.
Iran dismisses Western suspicions that its nuclear program is cover for a drive for a weapons capability, insisting that it is for peaceful power generation and medical purposes only.
The United Nations, the United States and the European Union have levied a series of sanctions on Iran to stop its atomic program.