One of the Iranian student leaders of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover says he regrets seizing the diplomatic post and the 444-day hostage crisis that followed.
In this Oct. 29, 2019, photo, Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, one of the Iranian student leaders of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover, speaks in an interview with The Associated Press, in Tehran, Iran. Asgharzadeh says he now regrets the seizure of the diplomatic compound and the 444-day hostage crisis that followed.
Asgharzadeh cautioned others against following in his footsteps, despite the takeover becoming enshrined in hard-line mythology. He also disputed a revisionist history now being offered by supporters of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that they directed the attack, insisting all the blame rested with the Islamist students who let the crisis spin out of control.
But the students settled on the U.S. Embassy, hoping to pressure Carter to send the shah back to Iran to stand trial on corruption charges. Asgharzadeh, then a 23-year-old engineering student, remembers friends going to Tehran’s Grand Bazaar to buy a bolt cutter, a popular tool used by criminals, and the salesman saying: “You do not look like thieves! You certainly want to open up the U.S.
“We, the students, take responsibility for the first 48 hours of the takeover,” Asgharzadeh said. “Later, it was out of our hands since the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the establishment supported it.”As time went on, it slowly dawned on the naive students that Americans as a whole wouldn’t join their revolution. While a rescue attempt by the U.S. military would fail and Carter would lose to Ronald Reagan amid the crisis, the U.S.
It hadn’t, though. The eight-year Iran-Iraq War would break out during the crisis. The hostage crisis and later the war boosted the position of hard-liners who sought strict implementation of their version of Islamic beliefs.
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