US Condemns Iran's 'Celebration' Of Embassy Hostage Taking

The US State Department has condemned Iran’s celebration of the 1979 embassy hostage taking and its claims that the US is still working on a nuclear deal.

Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian repeated accusations that the United States is encouraging “violence and terror” in popular protests across the country. In a tweet Thursday, he also claimed that Washington is still trying to reach a nuclear agreement.

Iran routinely accuses "enemies" for most of its problems and has presented no evidence of any foreign power being involved in its antigovernment protests.

Since August when a last-ditch effort by the European Union to bridge gaps in 18 months of talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, the US has said that Iran is not serious about an agreement, putting forth demands outside the scope of the accord known as JCPOA.

The US official dismissed Amir-Abdollahian’s claim, saying, “We have been clear that by adopting positions inconsistent with a deal, Iran has taken the JCPOA off the agenda, and that we have sent no messages otherwise. Iran can repeat the claim as often as they want. We have no need to comment further on it.”

The official also condemned Iran’s celebration of the anniversary of the kidnapping of American diplomats as repugnant. “That they in the same breath accuse anyone else of terrorism is doubly so,” the official said.

In November 1979, a group of leftist students backed by the new revolutionary government occupied the US embassy in Tehran and took 54 Americans hostage for 444 days. Iran has never condemned the attack that ruptured bilateral relations.