DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran on Saturday celebrated the forty fourth anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution amid nationwide anti-government protests and heightened tensions with the West.

1000’s of Iranians marched by way of main streets and squares adorned with flags, balloons and placards with revolutionary and spiritual slogans. The army placed on show its Emad and Sejjil ballistic missiles and cruise missiles in addition to its Shahed-136 and Mohajer drones.

Protesters started pouring into the streets in September after the dying of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, an Iranian-Kurdish lady detained by the nation’s morality police. These demonstrations, initially targeted on Iran’s necessary headband, or hijab, quickly morphed into requires a brand new revolution.

In a speech at Azadi Sq. within the capital Tehran, President Ebrahim Raisi referred to the protests as a venture by Iran’s enemies aimed toward stopping the nation from persevering with its achievements.

Raisi known as the celebration “epic” and a present of “nationwide integrity” whereas praising post-revolution achievements within the nation.

The remarks prompted the gang to chant “Loss of life to the U.S.”

In the meantime, Telewebion, an internet TV service affiliated with Iranian state TV, was briefly hacked throughout Raisi’s speech, Iranian media reported. The khabaronline.ir information web site mentioned the interruption lasted 19 seconds .

“Edalate Ali” or “The Justice of Ali,” hackers group in a 44-sencond video revealed on Twitter invited folks to participate in nationwide protests subsequent week and urged Iranians to withdraw their cash from their banks.

Chants together with “Loss of life to Khamenei” and “Loss of life to the Islamic Republic” might be heard on the video and a masked individual with a girl’s voice learn the message. The group beforehand hacked into the infamous Evin jail and different authorities amenities.

The anniversary comes after two years during which celebrations have been largely restricted to automobiles because of the pandemic that killed greater than 140,000 folks, in Iran based on official numbers — the very best nationwide dying toll within the Center East.

Processions in Tehran on Saturday began out from a number of factors and converged at Azadi Sq.. TV confirmed crowds in lots of cities and cities and mentioned lots of of hundreds of individuals participated.

The celebration was a present of energy to the protesters. State tv refers back to the demonstrations as a “foreign-backed riot” reasonably than homegrown frustration over the dying of Amini. Anger additionally has unfold over the collapse of the Iranian rial towards the U.S. greenback and Tehran’s arming Russia with bomb-carrying drones in its conflict on Ukraine, which has additionally angered the West. Iran says it gave the drones to Russia earlier than the conflict.

The Iranian authorities has not provided an general dying toll or variety of people it has arrested. Nonetheless, activists exterior of the nation say at the very least 528 folks have been killed and 19,600 folks detained within the crackdown that adopted.

Final week, Iran’s state media mentioned the supreme chief ordered an amnesty or discount in jail sentences for “tens of hundreds” of individuals detained in in the course of the protests, acknowledging for the primary time the dimensions of the crackdown.

The decree by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a part of a yearly pardoning the supreme chief does earlier than the anniversary, got here as authorities have but to say how many individuals they detained within the demonstrations.

Referring to the amnesty, Raisi on Saturday urged those that have been “deceived by the enemy” to “return to the nation” and promised his administration would present mercy on them, too

Crowds waved Iranian flags, chanted slogans and carried placards with conventional anti-West slogans like “Loss of life to America” and “Loss of life to Israel.” Some burned flags of the U.S. and Israel, a ritual in pro-government rallies.

The Islamic Revolution started with widespread unrest in Iran over the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The shah, terminally and secretly unwell with most cancers, fled Iran in January 1979. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini then returned from exile and the federal government fell on Feb. 11, 1979, after days of mass demonstrations and confrontations between protesters and safety forces.

Later in April, Iranians voted to change into an Islamic Republic, a Shiite theocracy with Khomeini because the nation’s first supreme chief, with closing say on all issues of state.

Months later, when the U.S. allowed the shah into the nation for most cancers therapy in New York, anger boiled over in Tehran resulting in the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in November 1979 by militant college students. The next hostage disaster kindled many years of enmity.