Iran is marking the 47th anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution amid unprecedented internal and external pressures.
Last year, Israel and the US launched airstrikes inside Iran, targeting its nuclear sites, air bases, air defense systems, and top military leadership and nuclear scientists.
This year began with large-scale anti-government protests, followed by brutal repression in which thousands of people were shot down.
Meanwhile, there are fears that the US and Israel are gearing up to attack Iran again, raising questions over how long the Iranian regime will survive.
Facing these unprecedented internal and external challenges, the regime tried to project a united front.
Crowds flooded Tehran and other cities to celebrate the Islamic Republic’s establishment and show solidarity with the beleaguered government during one of its most tumultuous periods in recent history.
Many in the crowd carried portraits of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Islamic Republic’s founder, along with Iranian and Palestinian flags. Many chanted, “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Through these massive crowds, the regime tried to show that Iran’s theocratic government still enjoys support 47 years after the Islamic Revolution that changed not only Iran’s history, but is considered a significant event in world history.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution not only turned a modern, liberal, pro-Western Iran into a conservative, radicalised, repressive, and deeply anti-Western state, but it also foreshadowed the rise of radical Islamist regimes in Afghanistan and many other parts of the Muslim world.
From Afghanistan to Syria, and Palestine to Yemen, the world, and particularly the Middle East, is still feeling the reverberations of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.
February 11 marks the 47th anniversary of this cataclysmic event.
This date marks the victory day and the official collapse of the Pahlavi monarchy. On February 11, 1979, the Iranian armed forces declared neutrality in the ongoing conflict between revolutionaries and loyalists to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Following this, the revolutionary forces, including guerrillas and rebel troops, overran the remaining loyalist positions.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had returned to Iran from exile on February 1, 1979, effectively assumed leadership of the country.
The establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran also set in motion a series of events that ultimately led to the storming of the US embassy in Tehran by the young revolutionaries, who took over 400 US diplomatic staff hostage.
Incidentally, today, as the US and Canada are involved in a bitter trade war, the US hostage crisis in Iran also marks an event when Canadians risked their own safety and freedom to rescue their American friends.
When Canadians Rescued U.S. Diplomatic Staff
On November 4, 1979, a few months after the Islamic Revolution that overthrew the Shah and brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power, militant Iranian students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran.
Iranian student protesters breached the U.S. embassy’s security perimeter and began taking American personnel hostage.
They took 66 American personnel hostage. The revolutionaries demanded the extradition of the deposed Shah, who was in the US for medical treatment.
However, six US State Department diplomats (working in the consular section) managed to evade capture during the initial chaos.
They were: Robert Anders, Mark Lijek, and Cora Amburn-Lijek, Joseph Stafford and Kathleen Stafford, and Lee Schatz.
They fled the embassy compound and initially hid in various locations before seeking help.
A few days after their escape, American diplomat Anders called his Canadian counterpart John Sheardown.
Responding to the news, John Sheardown said, “We’ve been worried about you. What took you so long? Of course, you can come over.”
Joe and Kathleen ultimately stayed with Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor, and the other four in the group stayed with the Sheardowns. The group of six would remain guests of the Canadian diplomats for almost three months.
The Canadian government, led by Prime Minister Joe Clark and Secretary of State for External Affairs Flora MacDonald, gave full backing to this protective effort, despite the significant diplomatic and personal risks to Canadian personnel in Tehran.
By January 1980, Ottawa, with the help of the CIA, began planning the escape of the six American diplomatic staff hiding with their Canadian counterparts.
The operation was named “Canadian Caper.”
The Canadian Government passed a special “Order in Council” that authorized the issuance of Canadian passports to Americans to facilitate their safe return home.
They were also provided with forged visas and other travel documents.
CIA officer Tony Mendez devised an ingenious cover story: the six would pose as a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a fake Hollywood sci-fi movie titled Argo. This ruse explained why a group of Westerners would be in revolutionary Iran.
On Taylor’s advice, it was decided that the only way out of Iran was through the airport on a regularly scheduled flight. In bureaucratic jargon, the operation was referred to as the “exfiltration” of the American hostages.
Meanwhile, the process of slowly closing down the Canadian Embassy started. Staff members gradually began to depart, the last classified documents were shredded, and unclassified material was moved to the New Zealand Embassy, which had agreed to look after Canadian interests.
Important information on security procedures at the airport was provided by couriers and departing members of the Embassy staff, including Kneale, who carefully observed and memorized “every detail of the process” as he passed through the airport on January 9.
Forged Iranian exit and entry visas and passport stamps were prepared in the United States and sent by Canadian courier to Tehran.
On January 25, Mendez and another CIA officer arrived in Tehran, posing as yet more members of the fictitious film company.
On January 28, 1980, the group (accompanied by Mendez and another CIA officer) passed through Tehran airport security and boarded a Swissair flight to freedom, landing safely in Europe and then the US.
The same day, Canada closed its embassy in Tehran and evacuated its remaining staff. However, 52 of the 66 American hostages remained captive for 444 days until January 1981.
In the US, the story of the daring escape broke on January 29.
It brought an outpouring of gratitude across the United States and made Taylor a celebrity, who gave personal appearances across North America, reaping honours and awards from grateful Americans. Exploiting his celebrity, the government appointed him Canada’s next Consul-General in New York.
Washington awarded Taylor the Congressional Gold Medal, and Canada made him an Officer of the Order of Canada.
In 2012, the daring escape was fictionalised in the Hollywood movie Argo. However, many critics argued that while the movie dramatized the CIA’s role, it underplayed the part played by the Canadians.
At a time when Canada and the US are engaged in a bitter trade war, this episode from the past, when Canadians risked their own safety and well-being to save the lives of Americans, might serve as a timely reminder that the bond between Canada and the United States runs far deeper than trade balances, tariffs, or political headlines.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
- VIEWS PERSONAL OF THE AUTHOR.
- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
