ANKARA (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Iranians rallied on Friday to swear allegiance to their clerical leaders and reject U.S. President Donald Trump’s warning that he had put the Islamic Republic “on notice”, state TV reported.

Iranians take part in a ceremony marking the anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, in Tehran, Iran February 10, 2017. President.ir/Handout via REUTERS

On the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, marchers including hundreds of military personnel and policemen streamed towards Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square for the main event.

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They carried “Death to America” banners and effigies of Trump while a military police band played traditional Iranian revolutionary songs.

State TV showed footage of people stepping on Trump’s picture in a central Tehran street. Marchers carried the Iranian flag and banners saying: “Thanks Mr Trump for showing the real face of America.”

“America and Trump cannot do a damn thing. We are ready to sacrifice our lives for our leader”, a young man told state TV, in a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Last week, Trump put Iran “on notice” after a Jan. 29 Iranian missile test and imposed fresh sanctions on individuals and entities. Iran said it will not halt its missile program.

Leading religious and political figures, including President Hassan Rouhani, had urged Iranians to join the rally on Friday to “show their unbreakable ties with the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Republic”.

Tehran and Washington cut diplomatic ties shortly after the revolution, when hardline students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Among Iranian officials attending the ceremony was Qasem Soleimani, who heads Iran’s Quds Force and is in charge of foreign operations of the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Iran said it had smashed an underground cell linked to Islamic State in recent days that it said wanted to “sabotage and carry out devilish acts” at the rallies.

VIGILANT

“Some inexperienced figures in the region and America are threatening Iran ... They should know the language of threats has never worked with Iran,” Rouhani told the crowd at Azadi Square. “We are not seeking tension but we are united before bullying and any threat.”

The rallies bristled with anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli sentiment. Some protesters carried pictures of Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and British Prime Minister Theresa May with the caption “Death to the Devil Triangle”.

“This turnout of people is a strong response to false remarks by the new leaders of America,” Rouhani told state TV, which said millions had turned out at rallies across Iran.

Many Iranians on social media such as Twitter and Facebook used the hashtag #LoveBeyondFlags to urge an end to burning of U.S. flags, a regular feature of these anniversary events.

They also thanked Americans for opposing Trump’s executive order banning travelers from seven mainly Muslim countries - including Iran - from entry to the United States. The travel ban is being challenged in U.S. courts.

Some marchers in the crowds carried banners that read: “Thanks to American people for supporting Muslims”.

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Both U.S.-based social media sites are blocked by the government in Iran but many Iranians get around the restrictions to use them. Iranian officials, including Khamenei, have Twitter and Facebook accounts despite the ban.

Trump has criticized a nuclear deal reached between Iran, the United States and other major powers in 2015 aimed at curbing the country’s nuclear work. Most of the sanctions imposed on Iran were lifted last year under the deal.

Rouhani defended the deal, which his hardline rivals oppose as a concession to pressure from Washington. He said it protected the Islamic Republic’s rights to nuclear power, ending Iran’s political isolation and crippling economic sanctions.</s>“Today’s rally shows that the government does not want any confrontation with the U.S.,” said Farshad Ghorbanpour, an analyst who is close to the government of President Hassan Rouhani. “Don’t be surprised, we have no interest with tensions.”

Throughout the week, Iranians on social media had asked people not to burn flags, but instead to thank American protesters for standing up to Mr. Trump’s targeted travel ban and for defending refugees, students, tourists and others affected by the executive order. Others said they had underestimated the new president at first, but now worried about new sanctions on Iran, or even military strikes.

Most of the hundreds of thousands at the rallies carried signs handed to them at the starting points of the rally. Several people carried black and white signs with text in English calling on Americans to visit Iran.</s>TEHRAN — Iranians began a nationwide celebration Friday to commemorate the 38th anniversary of the 1979 revolution with rallies around the country.

Demonstrators in Tehran chanted traditional slogans against the U.S. and Israel. The rallies come at a time when new US President Donald Trump has already engaged in a war of words with Iran’s leadership and put Tehran “on notice” over a recent ballistic missile test.

Among other places, demonstrators marched toward Azadi Square, where President Hassan Rouhani was slated to address the crowd.

In downtown Tehran on Enghelab street thousands of people, some carrying the Iranian flag, some with banners and posters with revolutionary slogans.

Printed US flags and pictures of current and former US presidents were flattened on the road and trampled by some participants.

The rallies commemorate Feb. 11, 1979, when followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ousted the U.S.-backed Shah Reza Pahlavi.

Some posters distributed in English read: “Thanks to American people for supporting Muslims.” Another one next to a picture of Trump said: “Thanks Mr. Trump … for revealing the face of the US,” a reference to remarks Tuesday by Iran’s supreme leader in which he said the “newcomer” Trump had shown the “real face” of the United States.

Some people threw balls and darts targeting pictures of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Many ranking officials attended the ceremony Tehran, including Qassem Soleimani, a general who heads the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force that focuses on foreign operations like the war in Syria.

State television aired footage of commemorations in Tehran and other cities and towns across the country, many of them in sub-zero weather.</s>Iranians on Friday marked the anniversary of the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution with nationwide celebrations and mass rallies that saw people step on large U.S. flags laid out on the streets while President Hassan Rouhani called the new American administration “a problem.”

This year, the anniversary came against the backdrop of remarks by President Donald Trump, who has already engaged in a war of words with Iran’s leadership and put Tehran “on notice” over its recent ballistic missile test.

At the Tehran rallies Friday, demonstrators chanted traditional slogans against the United States and Israel, and later, hundreds of thousands marched toward the city’s central Azadi Square, where Rouhani addressed the crowds, telling them that Iran will strongly answer any threat from its enemies.

“All of them should know that they must talk to the Iranian nation with respect and dignity,” Rouhani declared. “Our nation will strongly answer to any threat. (Iranians) will resist before enemies until the end.”

Rouhani called Iran the home of “lions” but said the country does not seek hostility. “We are not after tensions in the region and the world. We are united in the face of bullying and any threat.”

Many of the marchers carried the Iranian flag, others had banners and posters with revolutionary slogans. Printed U.S. flags and pictures of current and former U.S. presidents lay scattered on the streets — so they could be trampled by the marchers.

Iran and the U.S. have not had diplomatic relations since 1979, when Iranian students stormed the American Embassy and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Friday’s rallies commemorated Feb. 11 of that year, when followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ousted the U.S.-backed Shah Reza Pahlavi. The United States helped orchestrate the 1953 coup that overthrew Iran’s popular prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, which brought Pahlavi to power and set the stage for decades of mistrust between the countries.

Some of the posters distributed in English on Friday read: “Thanks to American people for supporting Muslims.”

Another one with a picture of Trump said: “Thanks Mr. Trump ... for revealing the face of the U.S.” — a reference to remarks by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, earlier this week.

Khamenei said on Tuesday that the “newcomer” Trump has shown the “real face” of the United States. He spoke after Trump tweeted — following a ballistic missile test by Iran — that Iranians were “playing with fire,” saying they “don’t appreciate how ‘kind’ President (Barack) Obama was to them. Not me!”

Trump has repeatedly criticized the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers, in which Tehran agreed to curb its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions, but he has not said what he plans to do about it.

His administration said Iran was “on notice” over the missile test, and imposed new sanctions on more than two dozen Iranian companies and individuals.

In Tehran, some of the demonstrators threw balls and darts targeting pictures of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Others burned an American flag. The semi-official ILNA news agency reported that an Israeli flag was also burned.

Many ranking officials attended the ceremony in Tehran, including Gen. Qassem Soleimani who heads the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, which focuses on foreign operations such as the war in Syria and Iraq’s fight against the Islamic State group where the Shiite power Iran supports Iraq’s government.

Rouhani told reporters prior to addressing the crowds that Iranians will make the U.S. regret using threatening language, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

“Anyone who speaks the language of threat to this nation, the Iranian nation will make him regret” it, he said, without elaborating.

“This presence (of demonstrators) is a response to wrong comments by new leaders in the White House, and they announce with their presence to the world that they (U.S. leaders) should talk with respect and not use threatening language to the Iranian nation,” Rouhani added.

Iranian state television aired footage of commemorations in Tehran and other cities and towns across the country, many of them held in sub-zero temperatures.

In the central city of Kashan, the official IRNA news agency said the country’s prosecutor general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, told reporters that members of the Islamic State group have been arrested near Tehran. “They planned to sabotage” the anniversary rallies, he said.

And Khamenei’s senior adviser, Gen. Rahim Safavi, said during a similar rally in the southern city of Ahvaz that the “evil triangle” or America, Britain and Israel “cannot create a serious military threat against Iran.”

Tehran resident Mohammad Soufi, 33, a medical lab technician, said Trump’s recent stance encouraged him and his wife to participate in the rally this year.

“We did not participate in the rally for more than 10 years,” he said. “This year my wife told me: ‘Let’s go out to show to the world, particularly Trump, that we love our county despite differences’.”

Sorraya Khalili , a 44-year-old hairstylist, said she was out to support the government and object to the “U.S. bullying of Iran.”

“Why people like Trump think they can make decisions for the entire world? Iran is an independent country like the United States,” she added. “I wish Americans get to visit Iran to find out we are similar to them; we warmly welcome our guests and respect them.”</s>Millions are celebrating the 38th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran that toppled the Pahlavi dynasty.

The celebrations are marked this year by tense relations with the US.

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets of the capital Tehran on Friday.

Some Iranians denounced US President Donald Trump’s recent statements regarding the Muslim state, while others thanked the United States for supporting Muslims.

On the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, which saw the ousting of the former US-backed House of Pahlavi, a flood of protesters headed towards Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square with Iranian flags, celebrating the rule of the current clerical establishment.

Some also carried effigies of Trump, as well as banners reading “Death to America,” the footage showed, to the sound of traditional Iranian revolutionary songs played by police military ensemble.

The crowd included hundreds of military personnel and police officers, Reuters reported citing local TV.

Footage showed people trampling on pictures of Trump in a central Tehran street, where marchers carried banners reading: “Thanks Mr. Trump for showing the real face of America.” The crowd was also seen burning US and Israeli flags. Israel is Washington’s main ally in the region, while Iran has been supporting Palestinians in their dispute with Israel. Chanting out provocative slogans and burning flags are common practices at mass demonstrations in Iran.

However, some Iranians held banners that said “Down with the US regime, Long live US people” and “Americans are welcome to visit Iran,” showing gratitude to the demonstrators who took to the streets of America to protest Trump’s executive order barring entry to the citizens of seven Muslim countries, including Iran. Yesterday, a US Court of Appeals upheld an injunction blocking enforcement of the ban, but the case will likely continue to be appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court.

The protest comes after Iran’s most powerful authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on Iranians earlier this week to demonstrate against the US to show Iran was not frightened of their “threats.”

“[Trump] says ‘You should be afraid of me.’ No! The Iranian people will respond to his words on February 10 and will show their stance against such threats,” Khamenei said on Tuesday.

Last week Fox News published an interview with Donald Trump, in which he said “they [Iran] have total disregard for our country, they’re the number one terrorist state, they’re sending money all over the place and weapons,” referring to accusations frequently coming from the West that Tehran is supporting various Shiite rebel groups in the Middle East, including the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Palestinian group Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen.

Earlier in February, the US also imposed new sanctions on Iran in response to a ballistic missile test, which Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Flynn described as provocative and destabilizes the situation across the Middle East.

The US claimed the test violated UN Security Council Resolution 2231 which called on Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles.” Flynn said that the Trump administration “condemns such actions by Iran,” and has “officially put Iran on notice.“

Addressing the crowds on Friday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani also called on Iranians to “show their unbreakable ties with the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Republic.”

“Some inexperienced figures in the region and America are threatening Iran […] They should know that the language of threats has never worked with Iran […] They should learn to respect Iran and Iranians […] We will strongly confront any warmongering policies,” Rouhani told the crowd at the Azadi Square, as cited by Reuters, which reported that millions had shown up to commemorate the occasion across the country.</s>Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan attended a ceremony in Yerevan marking the 38th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

According to the government’s website, Karapetyan congratulated Iran’s Ambassador to Armenia Seyed Kazem Sajadi and the people of Iran on the occasion, expressing the hope that Armenia-Iran relations would further strengthen.

The ceremony took place in the reception hall of Armenia’s Government Building.</s>TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranians began a nationwide celebration Friday to commemorate the 38th anniversary of the 1979 revolution with rallies around the country.

Demonstrators in Tehran chanted traditional slogans against the U.S. and Israel. The rallies come at a time when new U.S. President Donald Trump has already engaged in a war of words with Iran’s leadership and put Tehran “on notice” over a recent ballistic missile test.

Among other places, hundreds of thousands demonstrators marched toward Azadi Square, where President Hassan Rouhani addressed the crowd. He called the new U.S. administration “a problem” and said Iran will strongly answer any threat from its enemies.

“All of them should know that they must talk to the Iranian nation with respect and dignity,” Rouhani urged the world. “Our nation will strongly answer to any threat. (Iranians) will resist before enemies until the end.”

Rouhani called Iran the home of “lions” but said the country does not seek hostility. “We are not after tensions in the region and the world,” he said. “We are united before bullying and any threat.”

In downtown Tehran on Enghelab street thousands of people marched, some carrying the Iranian flag, some with banners and posters with revolutionary slogans. Printed U.S. flags and pictures of current and former U.S. presidents were flattened on the road and trampled by some of the participants.

Iran and the U.S. have not had diplomatic relations since 1979, when Iranian students stormed the American Embassy and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

The rallies commemorate Feb. 11, 1979, when followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ousted the U.S.-backed Shah Reza Pahlavi. The United States helped orchestrate the 1953 coup that overthrew Iran’s popular prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, which brought Pahlavi to power and set the stage for decades of mistrust between the countries.

Some posters distributed in English read: “Thanks to American people for supporting Muslims.” Another one next to a picture of Trump said: “Thanks Mr. Trump … for revealing the face of the U.S.,” a reference to remarks Tuesday by Iran’s supreme leader in which he said the “newcomer” Trump had shown the “real face” of the United States.

Some people threw balls and darts targeting pictures of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Some demonstrators burned an American flag.

Many ranking officials attended the ceremony in Tehran, including Qassem Soleimani, a general who heads the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force that focuses on foreign operations like the war in Syria.

President Rouhani told reporters prior to addressing the crowd that Iranians will make Washington regret the language of threat, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

“Anyone who speaks the language of threat to this nation, the Iranian nation will make him regret” it, he said, without elaborating. “This presence (of demonstrators) is a response to wrong comments by new leaders in the White House, and they announce with their presence to the world that they should talk with respect and not use threatening language to the Iranian nation.”

State television aired footage of commemorations in Tehran and other cities and towns across the country, many of them in sub-zero temperatures.

Tehran resident Mohammad Soufi, 33 a medical lab technician, said Trump’s recent stance encouraged him and his wife to participate in the rally this year.

“We did not participate in the rally for more than 10 years,” he said. This year my wife told me let’s to go out to show to the world, particularly Trump, that we love our county despite differences.”

Sorraya Khalili , a 44-year-old hairstylist, said she was out to support the government and object to U.S. bullying of Iran.

“Why people like Trump think they can make decision for entire world? Iran is an independent country like the United States. I wish American get able to visit Iran to find out we are similar to them; we warmly welcome our guests and respect them.”</s>Iran celebrated the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution with large nationwide rallies Friday that were strikingly devoid of one thing: the usual full-throated denunciations of the United States.

Amid rising tensions between Iran and the U.S. since President Trump took office, many observers had expected Iran to use the annual, politically tinged festivities to attack him.

Instead, Iran’s leaders sought to lower the temperature. The heavily choreographed rallies in Tehran and other cities featured remarkably few anti-Trump placards and none of the faux missiles or nuclear centrifuges that had been paraded down the streets in years past.

By showing restraint, the Iranian establishment signaled that it would continue to pursue the rapprochement with the U.S. that began under President Obama.

There were even signs of friendship. Some placards read: “Thanks to American people for supporting Muslims,” a reference to the protests in the U.S. over Trump’s attempt to temporarily block citizens of Iran and six other predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States.

Another sign said: “American people are welcome and invited to visit Iran.”

It seemed Iran was trying to capitalize on the distance between American civil society and its historically unpopular new president. Trump has threatened to undo the nuclear deal that has brought Iran some relief from international economic sanctions and said he was putting Tehran “on notice” after it conducted a missile test last month.

“The U.S. government has for years tried to distinguish between the fundamentalist regime and the civilized people of Iran,” said Karim Sadjadpour, senior fellow in the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Now the Iranian government is trying to drive a similar wedge between the American government and people.”

Before the rallies, hard-line newspapers had called for “stampeding American flags” while media close to Iranian reformists called for “national reconciliation against the common enemy, the United States.”

There were some anti-Trump messages. One poster featured a fist punching the face of a cartoon U.S. president. Another demonstrator in Tehran carried a small placard that read — in Farsi — “Trump, thank you for all your stupidities.”

At the rally, which culminated at Tehran’s Azadi (or Freedom) Square, a loudspeaker called for “tit-for-tat diplomacy.” But Iran has not taken steps to bar American travelers, making a show of offering visas to a U.S. freestyle wrestling team to allow it to participate in an international tournament next week.

The rally also featured a pavilion where Afghans living in Iran demonstrated boxing moves as a sign of their physical prowess. Known as the “Fatemiyoun Division,” the Afghans have been recruited to travel to Syria to defend Shiite Muslim shrines against the Sunni militants of Islamic State.

The annual rallies commemorate the 1979 ouster of a pro-U.S. monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and are suffused with political statements. Qasem Alipour, a 19-year-old garment factory worker who attended the rally with his girlfriend, said there should have been more discussion of the revolutionary ideals of economic equality and justice.

“I love the revolution,” Alipour said, “but these officials…do not address our basic problems and do not pay attention to the grass roots.”

Special correspondent Mostaghim reported from Tehran and Times staff writer Bengali from Belgrade, Serbia.

Follow @SBengali on Twitter for more news from South Asia</s>Hundreds of thousands of Iranians rallied on February 10 to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

 

 The rallies commemorate February 11, 1979, when followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ousted a U.S.-backed monarch, Shah Reza Pahlavi.

State television broadcast footage of large crowds in Tehran and other cities and towns across the country, many of them in freezing temperatures.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the capital's Azadi Square, chanting slogans against the United States and Israel.

Some carried banners reading "Death to America" and effigies of U.S. President Donald Trump. Images of the U.S. flag, Trump, and former U.S. presidents were trampled underfoot.

Addressing the crowds in Azadi Square, President Hassan Rohani called Trump's administration "a problem" and said Iran will "strongly answer any threat."

"Our nation is vigilant and will make those threatening Iran regret it," Rohani said, adding that Iran is "not after tensions in the region and the world."

The anniversary celebrations came a week after Trump and his administration said they were putting Iran "on notice" over a recent ballistic missile test they said defied a UN resolution.

Trump has also sharply criticized a 2015 deal between world powers and Iran that imposed curbs on Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

Other senior officials who attended the march in Tehran included Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and General Qasem Soleimani, who heads the elite Quds unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Tehran and Washington have not had diplomatic relations since supporters of the Islamic Revolution stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days in 1979-80.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
Iran marks its 38th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution with nationwide rallies and ceremonies. The ceremony also contains some anti-Trump protests.