Iran Hostage Crisis
This event was planned by Ebrahim Asgharzadeh in September of 79. He was part of a group called Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line. The plan was to "object against the American government by going to their embassy and occupying it for several hours,". Then "we intended to detain the diplomats for a few days, maybe one week, but no more.”- Asgharzadeh. The first thing they did was spy on the embassy and watch the US marine guards.
Then at around 6:30 on November 4th the leaders gathered between 300-500 students. They planned to stay there until the government came to restore order. A large crowed started to form but the embassy guards would not use deadly force. They tied up and blindfolded the embassy soldiers and staff and showed them off to the photographers and press. Some of them that did try to escape were rounded up by Islamists and returned as hostages. Six American diplomats did manage to escape. They left using their Canadian passports.
The original plan was to only hold them for a short time, but when they realized how popular that it was, the plan changed. Some blame pres. Carter for not reacting in enough time.
A few days after the whole thing was over Iran's moderate Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan and his cabinet resigned because the people did not trust him anymore.
sources:
Wikipedia
news.bbc.co.uk
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