Vahidi describes US Embassies as Dens of Spies

Iranian Minister of Defense Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi on Wednesday blasted the United States’ plots against the world nations, specially the independent nations, and said that Washington uses its embassies around the world for spying missions.

Addressing a ceremony marking the takeover of the US embassy in Iran on November 4, 1979, Vahidi said, “The United States’ inauspicious plots against Iran, the Middle-East and the Islamic World were all foiled after the seizure of the US ‘espionage den’ in Tehran.”

“The world public opinion realized that the US embassies in different countries of the world are not for interaction and promotion of relations, but they are mostly for espionage, plots, overthrowing and betraying nations and governments,” Vahidi added.

He stressed that the many wars, coup d’états, state-sponsored terrorist operations, conspiracies and invasions against the nations conducted by the US around the world during the past few decades have damaged reputation of the American nation in the world.

The Iranian minister cautioned the US authorities that continuation of the current approach by Washington will definitely lead to the collapse of the US system.

Diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States was intensified after 52 US embassy crews were held by Iran for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students took over the Embassy of the United States in support of the Islamic Revolution that had overthrown the US-backed Shah.

Sixty-six Americans were arrested when Iranian students seized the embassy known among Iranians as the US ‘Espionage Den’. Six more Americans escaped and of the 66, 13 were released on Nov. 19 and 20, 1979; one was released on July 11, 1980, and the remaining 52 were released on Jan. 20, 1981.

The episode reached a climax when, after failed attempts to negotiate a release, the United States military attempted a rescue operation, Operation Eagle Claw, on April 24, 1980, which resulted in a failed mission, the destruction of two aircraft and the deaths of eight American servicemen and one Iranian civilian.

It ended with the signing of the Algiers Accords in Algeria on January 19, 1981. The detainees were formally released into United States custody the following day, just minutes after the new American president Ronald Reagan was sworn in.