Iran Hostage Crisis

Iran–United States hostage crisis
Part of Consolidation of the Iranian Revolution
Iranian students crowd the U.S. Embassy in Tehran (November 4, 1979)
Date November 4, 1979 – January 20, 1981 (444 days or 1 year, 2 months, 2 weeks and 2 days) Location Tehran, Iran Result Hostages released by Algiers Accords Rupture of Iran–United States relations Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan and his cabinet resigned
Belligerents
Iran Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line People's Mujahedin	United States
Commanders and leaders
Ruhollah Khomeini Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha	Jimmy Carter
Casualties and losses
1 Iranian civilian and 8 American servicemen killed during an attempt to rescue the hostages.

Hostages released by Algiers Accords

 Iran

The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic standoff between Iran and the United States. Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981 after a group of Iranian students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. It stands as the longest hostage crisis in recorded history.

The crisis was described by the Western media as an “entanglement” of “vengeance and mutual incomprehension.” President Jimmy Carter called the hostages “victims of terrorism and anarchy” and said, “The United States will not yield to blackmail.” In Iran, it was widely seen as a blow against the United States and its influence in Iran, including its perceived attempts to undermine the Iranian Revolution and its longstanding support of the recently overthrown Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had led an autocratic regime.

After his overthrow in 1979, the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was purportedly admitted to the United States for cancer treatment. Iran demanded that he be returned to stand trial for crimes he was accused of committing during his reign. Specifically, Pahlavi was accused of committing crimes against Iranian citizens with the help of his secret police, the SAVAK. Iranians saw the decision to grant him asylum as American complicity in those atrocities. The Americans saw the hostage-taking as an egregious violation of the principles of international law, which granted diplomats immunity from arrest and made diplomatic compounds inviolable.

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