In Pictures Save Share People attend the 47th anniversary of the US expulsion from Iran, in Tehran [Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency/Reuters] By AFP, AP and Reuters Published On 4 Nov 20264 Nov 2026 Iran marked the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the United States embassy in Tehran on Wednesday with mass rallies in the capital, as officials used the occasion to hail what they called US and Israeli “defeats” in recent elections and on the battlefield.
On November 4, 1979, Iranian students stormed the US embassy, taking 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage for 444 days, a crisis that cemented the rupture between Tehran and Washington, which have had no formal diplomatic relations since.
This year’s anniversary comes against the backdrop of a war launched by the US and Israel against Iran on February 28, in which Iran’s longtime supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed, roiling global energy markets and disrupting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Thousands of demonstrators marched through central Tehran, burning US and Israeli flags and chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”.
Effigies and caricatures of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were paraded through the streets, including one showing Trump as a ferocious dog held on a leash by Netanyahu.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani told the crowd that the US and Israel had suffered a “decisive defeat”, including in Tuesday’s US congressional midterm elections, which was considered a rebuke of Trump’s Republican Party, claiming US weaknesses were the result of Iranian “steadfastness and strength”.
Iran’s judiciary chief, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, echoed the message in a post on X, saying: “Trump failed both in war and in politics.
We will certainly impose even more defeats upon him.” Advertisement US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu featured on a dartboard during the 47th anniversary of the takeover of the US embassy in Iran, in Tehran on Wednesday. [Majid Asgaripour/WANA/Reuters] Advertisement Chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" echoed through central Tehran as demonstrators waved Iranian flags and held banners denouncing the US and Israel. [Atta Kenare/AFP] People burn the US and Israeli flags during the 47th anniversary of the US embassy takeover in Tehran, Iran. [Majid Asgaripour/WANA/Reuters] The rally comes a day after the blistering US midterm losses by Trump's Republican Party, widely seen as a referendum on the president's turbulent second term, with high petrol prices triggered by the Iran war fuelling frustration. [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo] Workers install a billboard depicting, left to right, US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Vice President JD Vance with apparent injuries and torn clothing in central Tehran. [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo] Tehran's chief negotiator with Washington, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, hailed the US midterm result, saying on X that "Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message," the capital's first official reaction to the vote. [Majid Asgaripour/WANA/Reuters] Advertisement Iranians hold placards depicting Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei during a rally in front of the former US embassy to mark the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US embassy, in Tehran. [Atta Kenare/AFP] The annual rally marks the storming of the US embassy in Tehran in November 1979, months after the Islamic Revolution that toppled the US-backed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo] Bagheri, a 35-year-old school principal, says the US remains "the enemy", regardless of who is in charge in the United States. [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo] An Iranian flag and a poster depicting Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei with a rifle as he walks beneath a matching banner during the annual rally marking the anniversary of the 1979 US embassy takeover, outside the former embassy in Tehran. [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo] The region remains on edge over possible renewed US military operations against Iran. [Atta Kenare/AFP]
