“In this revolution, the Great Satan is America that gathers around other devils blatantly… If we see the US, this great Satan, raising chain and bringing the devils together around him, it is because the US grip over our country and our resources curtailed.”
Ayatollah Khomeini
(November 5 1979)
November 5 2023 — In a speech delivered on November 5 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini used the term “Great Satan” to describe the United States. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
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“Ronald Reagan made a deal with the Iranians about the hostages release before he was elected.”
Professor Alan Dershowitz
(Feb. 2017)
Ayatollah Khomeini accused the United States of imperialism and the sponsoring of corruption throughout the world. The speech occurred one day after the onset of the Iran hostage crisis.
RELATED POST : On This Day — Tehran Releases 52 US Hostages After 444 Days (January 20 1981)
4th November 1979: The Iran hostage crisis begins
The students seized 66 hostages, of whom 52 were held for 444 days before being released shortly after Ronald Reagan concluded his inaugural address as the new President of the USA.
The origins of the crisis lay in the declining relationship between the USA and Iran under the rule of Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi.
The American CIA along with MI6 from Britain had orchestrated a coup to install the Shah as ruler of Iran in order to protect their oil interests in the region.
Although this was successful, many Iranians opposed the Shah’s repressive rule and found a leader in Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini under whose guidance the Shah was overthrown in July 1979.
Three months later, on the 22nd October, the Shah was granted entry to the US to access treatment for lymphoma. Although President Carter eventually granted entry on humanitarian grounds, the political repercussions were huge.
Khomeini stirred up anti-American feeling by referring to the USA as the ‘Great Satan’ and hinting that the CIA was plotting another coup to return the Shah to power.
Shortly after the Shah landed in New York on the 4th November, a student demonstration outside the gates of the American Embassy in Tehran stormed the building.
66 hostages were taken, of which only 14 were released before the end of the crisis.
The remaining hostages were not freed until the 21st January 1981.
REFERENCES
Great Satan — Wikipedia
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On This Day — Ayatollah Khomeini declares US “The Great Satan” (November 5 1979)
“It is now very clear that there were two separate agreements, one the official agreement with Carter in Algeria, the other, a secret agreement with another party, which, it is now apparent, was Reagan. They made a deal with Reagan that the hostages should not be released until after Reagan became president. So, then in return, Reagan would give them arms. We have published documents which show that US arms were shipped, via Israel, in March, about 2 months after Reagan became president.”
Iranian President
Abolhassan Banisadr
Intel Today 