TEHRAN (Ruptly) – Ruptly was live from Tehran on Monday, November 4, as protesters rally to mark the 40^th anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in the Iranian capital.

The incident, known as the Iran hostage crisis, started after hundreds of Iranian students, who supported Ayatollah Khomeini, took over the US Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. Fifty-two US diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days inside the embassy premises.

It is commonly accepted in Iran that the hostage-taking of the American Embassy in Tehran was a Soviet plot that swept Khomeini and Iran into the Russian sphere. Incidentally, it was less than two months later, on December 25, that the Red Army began its invasion of Afghanistan.