TEHRAN, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iranians held demonstrations nationwide on Monday to mark the 40th anniversary of the seizure of the former U.S. embassy in Tehran, while the Iranian officials remained defiant to the escalating U.S. pressures.
In the capital Tehran, demonstrators gathered outside the former U.S. embassy, now called "den of espionage," carrying placards for the condemnation of U.S. policies against Iran.
They also chanted slogans against the United States and Israel and set their flags on fire.
On Monday, President Hassan Rouhani said that "the U.S. government has realized that its pressures, including those of sanctions, against the Islamic republic have been a failed policy."
The anniversary of the takeover of U.S. embassy in 1979 "has been designated as the national day of fight against the global arrogance in order to enlighten Iranian generations on the long history of resistance and popular struggle against foreign plots," Rouhani was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.
Besides, Yahya Rahim Safavi, top military aide to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Monday that Washington's anti-Iran policies have failed and the "U.S. hegemony is collapsing" in the region, according to Tasnim.
Through the recent regional developments, "it can be easily seen that the U.S. power is declining," Safavi said at the ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
The occasion to mark the anniversary of the embassy seizure this year comes amid the escalation of tensions between Washington and Tehran, and the mounting sanction pressures of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration against the Islamic republic.
On Monday, the U.S. sanctioned nine Iranian individuals, including Iran's Armed Forces General Staff, one of Iran's Supreme Leader's sons and the head of Iran's judiciary.
Besides, the White House imposed sanctions on Iran's construction sector on Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Iran's construction sector is heavily influenced by Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), an elite part of Iran's army which Washington has announced as "a terrorist group."
Meanwhile, Iran unveiled new murals and paintings on the walls of the former U.S. embassy in Tehran, displaying Iran's resistance against U.S. pressures.
Khamenei on Sunday rejected any negotiations with the United States over the relations, saying that negotiations with the United States will open Americans' infiltration into the country.
The former U.S. embassy was stormed by Iranian students on Nov. 4, 1979, and its personnel were held hostage for 444 days. The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Iran in 1980 and the ties between the two countries have since remained severed.
