Iranian Student Leader Regrets 1979 U.S. Embassy Attack

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – One of the Iranian student leaders of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover says he regrets seizing the diplomatic post and the 444-day hostage crisis that followed. In an interview with The Associated Press, Ebrahim Asgharzadeh now acknowledges that the repercussions of the takeover still reverberate 40 years later, as tensions soar between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s collapsing nuclear deal with world powers. Asgharzadeh cautions others against following in his footsteps, despite the takeover becoming enshrined in hard-line mythology. He also disputes a revisionist history offered by supporters of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that they directed the attack. He insists that all the blame rests with the Islamist students who let the crisis spin out of control. Asgharzadeh says: “Like Jesus Christ, I bear all the sins on my shoulders.”