Iranian hardliners unveiled a new anti-American plaque outside the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Tuesday.
The plaque on the fence outside the former embassy lists the top 100 anti-American expressions by the late Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini’s, according to multiple news reports. It was Khomeini who coined the term “Great Satan” for the U.S., among other barbs.
Students and members of Iran’s Basij militia, an all-volunteer paramilitary organization, burned and walked over U.S., British and Israeli flags as part of the plaque's unveiling.
Iranian national flags flutter above red religious banners during the inauguration of a memorial plaque bearing 100 anti-American comments made by the Islamic Republic's late founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and displayed on the fence of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, on Sept. 2, 2015. (Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images)
Iranian members of the Basij militia and hardline students burn American, British and Israeli national flags outside of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, on Sept. 2, 2015. (Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images)
Last month, the U.K. reopened its embassy in Iran for the first time since 2011, when it was ransacked by Iranian protesters upset about economic sanctions. Journalists who covered the ceremonial opening reported that graffiti calling for “death to England” had never been erased in the interim years.
The U.S. has not had an operating embassy in Iran since 1979, when Iranian students seized the diplomatic mission and held its staff along with military members hostage for 444 days.
President Barack Obama on Wednesday received his 34th vow of support for the Iranian nuclear deal in the Senate, guaranteeing that he will be able to sustain a veto of a congressional attempt to kill the agreement.
