Pictures: Iran’s Khamenei Claims Victory over U.S. on Embassy Siege Anniversary

Iranians took to the streets of Tehran Sunday to mark the 39th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover, as Washington restored all sanctions lifted under the flawed Obama-era JCPOA nuclear deal.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said despite military and economic opposition by the U.S. against the Islamic theocracy over the last four decades, “the U.S. is the defeated side and the Islamic Republic is the victorious party.”

Militant Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy on Nov. 4, 1979 and took 52 hostages for 444 days.

Khamenei said the U.S. has failed to dominate Iran in the way it did before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted a pro-Western monarchy, claiming the U.S. is weaker than it was in 1979.

As he spoke, angry crowds chanted “Down with U.S.” and “Death to Israel” during the rally in the capital, and state TV said similar demonstrations were held in other cities and towns.

On Friday, the Trump administration announced the restoration of sanctions on Iran’s shipping, financial and energy sectors, the second batch of penalties to be restored.

The restrictions come six months after President Donald Trump fulfilled a campaign promise and ended an Obama-era nuclear agreement with the Middle East state.

Every year on November 3-4, Iran celebrates the 444-day siege of the embassy when more than 50 diplomats and general staff were taken hostage by Islamist students demanding the extradition of the shah, who had fled to America after being deposed a few months earlier in the Islamic revolution.

The crisis severed US-Iranian diplomatic ties for decades.

AP contributed to this report.

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