Tehran Police Sets Location For Annual Anti-US rally, Warns Opposition


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Report Source: Press TV

Tehran's police force has announced that gatherings marking the 30th anniversary of the US Embassy takeover would be held in front of the building.

Since the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran Iranians have been celebrating the occasion every year by holding rallies on the anniversary and marking it as the country's national Students' Day.

The day has been dubbed as the national day of fighting global arrogance.

A statement released by the force said on Monday that the gathering is to be held in front of the former US Embassy.

The statement added that holding any other demonstrations elsewhere in the city is "illegal".

"The police will strongly confront people or groups intending to create unrest and unlawful behavior, based on its legal responsibilities," it added.

The opposition, which considers Ahmadinejad's government as illegitimate, plans to hold its own rallies continuing the post-election protests.

Above: A green movement poster with slogans of "death to no one" and "the day of respecting other nations" which are both contrary to the theme of the government sponsored protests where "death to America" is the dominant slogan.

Below: Another poster showing opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi and inviting people to protests on November 4.

The force also urged citizens to cooperate with police officers and take into account the special traffic restrictions put in place on the day of the event.

The statement came after Iran's armed forces issued a warning to those who seek to fuel unrest not to fall for enemy-backed "psychological warfare".

Deputy Head of Iran's armed forces headquarters Brigadier-General Seyyed Massoud Jazayeri called on the nation to exercise caution as the enemy may be planning mischief and plots on November 4.

In 1979 university students took over the building convinced that Washington was plotting against the Revolution that was only a few months old at the time.

Inside the embassy, the students found shredded documents which proved right their convictions after being reattached.

In 1953, Washington orchestrated a coup against the popular and democratically-elected Iranian prime minister of the time, Mohammad Mosaddeq, whose efforts led to the nationalization of the country's oil industry.

Almost half a century later, former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright acknowledged the pivotal role that the US played in the coup, coming closer than any other American diplomat to apologize for the intervention.

"The Eisenhower administration believed its actions were justified for strategic reasons... But the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development. And it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America," she said in March 2000.