TEHRAN, Iran
Anadolu Agency has visited the former US Embassy in Tehran where staffers were taken hostage by Iranian students in 1979. It has now turned into a museum, attracting both local and foreign tourists.
On Nov.4, 1979, following the Iranian revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini, a large number of Iranian students stormed the US Embassy building and took at least 60 hostages, mostly diplomats, and other embassy staff.
The detainees were released on Jan. 21, 1981, 444 days after the crisis began. During this period, the two countries became sworn enemies, and over the years tensions have only escalated.
The incident that took place more than four decades ago played a key role in heightening tensions between post-revolution Iran and the US, which led to a breakdown in political and diplomatic ties between the two countries.
The embassy building, which stands in a vast compound in the center of Tehran, was later handed over to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The Anadolu Agency team on Thursday captured the traces of the occupation inside the embassy building, whose walls are full of anti-US slogans.
Only the main building, which covers an area of 50,000 square meters in total, was turned into a museum in 2016. It was closed for more than a year due to repair and renovation works.
Visitors can tour the main service building where the ambassador’s room was located before the siege. Working areas of diplomats, archives room, communication and encryption-decryption sections are also there.
Other parts of the embassy, however, continue to be used by the Revolutionary Guards.
One of the rooms included a glass box in which diplomats could conduct top-secret conversations, without the fear of being overheard.
*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz in Ankara
