Iranians chanting "Death to America" rallied on Sunday to mark both the anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy during the 1979 Islamic Revolution and renewed U.S. sanctions on Iran's key oil sector planned to go into effect the next day.
In the meantime, the sanctions – the second of two rounds of sanctions the U.S. has re-introduced after having lifted the crippling sanctions in 2015 under an international nuclear agreement with Tehran – have now been officially reimposed.
Thousands of students in the government-organized rally in the capital Tehran, broadcast live by state television, burned the American and Israeli flags, an effigy of Uncle Sam and pictures of U.S. President Donald Trump outside the leafy downtown compound that once housed the U.S. mission.
On Nov. 4, 1979, hard-line Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, soon after the fall of the U.S.-backed Shah, and 52 Americans were held hostage there for 444 days. The two countries have been enemies, on opposing sides of Middle East conflicts, ever since.
Iranian state media said millions turned out for rallies in most cities and towns around the country, swearing allegiance to the clerical establishment and its hard-line top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Rallies replete with "Death to America" chants are staged on the embassy takeover anniversary every year. But U.S.-Iranian rancor is especially strong this year, following Trump's decision in May to withdraw the United States from world powers' 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimpose sanctions on Tehran.
The restoration of U.S. sanctions on Monday targeting Iran's oil sales and banking sectors is part of a wider effort by Trump to pressure Tehran to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and stop supporting proxy forces in conflicts across the Middle East.
Commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, said at the Tehran rally that Iran would resist and defeat a U.S. "psychological war" and the restoration of U.S. sanctions, meant to cripple the Islamic republic's oil exports and financial institutions.
"America has launched an economic and psychological war as a last resort ... But America's plots and its plans for sanctions will be defeated through continued resistance," Jafari said.
"Mr. Trump! Never threaten Iran because moans of the frightened U.S. forces in Tabas can still be heard," Jafari said. "Still the moans of your terrified sailors and your British friends in the Persian Gulf can be heard," he said, referring to times the IRGC have held sailors captive there.
Iran is already in the grip of an economic crisis. Its rial currency now trades at 145,000 to one U.S. dollar, down from when it traded 40,500 to $1 a year ago. The economic chaos sparked mass anti-government protests at the end of last year which resulted in nearly 5,000 reported arrests and at least 25 people being killed. Sporadic demonstrations still continue.
The United States says the sanctions are not aimed at toppling the government, but at persuading it to radically change its policies, including its support for regional militant groups and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. However, Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton, have both made public statements supporting overthrowing Iran's theocratic government.
The symbolism of the looming sanctions coming was not lost on protesters Sunday.
"Sanctions have always existed and we are used to them," said one woman protester who only gave her name as Torabi. "The tougher they take it out on us, the more resistant we become."
Another demonstrator, Jamshid Zarei, waved a banner in English quoting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying: "America can't do a damn thing."
"The Iranian people are feeling the economic pressure at their dinner tables and we complain about this, but it will not make Iranian people give up Islam, their values and the [Islamic] Revolution because of rising prices," he said. "Anyone who thinks that way is really a fool."
