Iranian Army: World Comes to Realize Spying Mission of US Embassies 35 Years after Iran

The General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, in a statement on the occasion of the 34th anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran, said while Iran shut down the American embassy for espionage activities 35 years ago, other world countries have just come to realize Washington’s insincerity and betrayal of their trust.
The statement pointed to the recent US wire-tapping scandal and its concurrence with the 34th anniversary of the historic seizure of the former US embassy in Iran by revolutionary forces on November 4, and said, “Beyond the geography of Islamic Iran, the 13th of Aban (November 4) can turn into an opportunity for unveiling the instances of the US government’s misusing the confidence and friendly interactions with other nations and governments and spying and wiretapping the conversations of the statesmen and people of Germany, France, Brazil, etc. to become a day of fiasco for the White House and declare a global lack of confidence and global hatred for the US statesmen.”

It said that in the past 35 years the Iranian nation has moved the revolution and the country towards brilliant and ideal stages under difficult conditions and under sanctions and threats by the hegemonic and arrogant powers, adding that at the present juncture the Iranian nation is fully vigilant and in full control over their (enemies’) new strategies in nuclear debates and will never relinquish its legal and righteous rights.

“Heroic Flexibility is the result of the strategy of resistance and leadership of diplomatic behavior from a superior position, and despite the efforts made by the hegemonic, arrogant and imperialist front it is not translated as withdrawal from the principles; … this strategy should be paid attention to and pursued within the framework of the Islamic Republic’s redlines and national interests,” the statement said.

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 National Day against the ‘Global Arrogance’.

On November 4, 1979, Iranian university students took over the building to thwart what they called Washington’s plots against the Islamic Revolution. Inside the embassy, the students found shredded documents which proved their convictions.

And now concurrent with this occasion, the world has come to realize that the US National Security Agency has been monitoring the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The confidential memo, dated October 2006, reveals that the NSA encourages senior officials in its “customer” departments, such as the White House, State and the Pentagon, to share their “Rolodexes” so the agency can add the phone numbers of leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems.

The document notes that one unnamed US official handed over 200 numbers, including those of the 35 world leaders, none of whom is named. These were immediately “tasked” for monitoring by the NSA.

The revelation is set to add to mounting diplomatic tensions between the US and its allies, after the German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday accused the US of tapping her mobile phone.

The NSA memo suggests that such surveillance was not isolated, as the agency routinely monitors the phone numbers of world leaders – and even asks for the assistance of other US officials to do so.

The rift over US surveillance activities first emerged earlier this year with reports that Washington had bugged European Union offices and tapped half a billion phone calls, emails and text messages in Germany in a typical month.

Merkel’s government said in August just weeks before the German election that the US had given sufficient assurances it was complying with German law.

This week’s news has reignited criticism of the US surveillance, and Volker Kauder, head of Merkel’s party in parliament, called it a “grave breach of trust” and said the US should stop its “global power demeanor”.