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The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic standoff between Iran and the United States.
The United States of America, commonly referred to as the United States or America, is a federal republic composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions.
Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia.
ABC News - America Held Hostage: The Iran Crisis by YorkVid
Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981 after a group of Iranian students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty under Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who was supported by the United States and its eventual replacement with an Islamic Republic under the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution, supported by various leftist and Islamist organizations and Iranian student movements.
The Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, also called the Muslim Students of the Imam Khomeini Line, was an Iranian student group that occupied the U.S. embassy in Tehran on 4 November 1979.
Iran Hostage Crisis 1979 (ABC News Report From 11/11/1979) by ABC News
It stands as the longest hostage crisis in recorded history.
The crisis was described by the Western media as an âentanglementâ of âvengeance and mutual incomprehension.â
President Jimmy Carter called the hostages âvictims of terrorism and anarchyâ and said, âThe United States will not yield to blackmail.â
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter Jr. is an American politician and author who served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981.
In Iran, it was widely seen as a blow against the United States and its influence in Iran, including its perceived attempts to undermine the Iranian Revolution and its longstanding support of the recently overthrown Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had led an autocratic regime.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, known as Mohammad Reza Shah, was the Shah of Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979.
After his overthrow in 1979, the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was purportedly admitted to the United States for cancer treatment.
Iran demanded that he be returned to stand trial for crimes he was accused of committing during his reign.
Specifically, Pahlavi was accused of committing crimes against Iranian citizens with the help of his secret police, the SAVAK.
SAVAK was the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service established by Iran's Mohammad Reza Shah with the help of the United States' Central Intelligence Agency and Israeli Mossad.
Iranians saw the decision to grant him asylum as American complicity in those atrocities.
The Americans saw the hostage-taking as an egregious violation of the principles of international law, which granted diplomats immunity from arrest and made diplomatic compounds inviolable.
The crisis reached a climax when, after failed efforts to negotiate the hostagesâ release, the United States military attempted a rescue operation using ships, including the USS Nimitz and USS Coral Sea, that were patrolling the waters near Iran.
On April 24, 1980, the attempt, known as Operation Eagle Claw, failed, resulting in the deaths of eight American servicemen and one Iranian civilian, as well as the destruction of two aircraft.
Operation Eagle Claw was a United States Armed Forces operation ordered by US President Jimmy Carter to attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis by rescuing 52 embassy staff held captive at the Embassy of the United States, Tehran on 24 April 1980.
Shah Pahlavi left the United States in December 1979 and was ultimately granted asylum in Egypt, where he died from complications of cancer on July 27, 1980.
Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula.
In September 1980, the Iraqi military invaded Iran, beginning the IranâIraq War.
The IranâIraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq lasting from 22 September 1980, when Iraq invaded Iran, to August 1988.
These events led the Iranian government to enter negotiations with the U.S., with Algeria acting as a mediator.
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a sovereign state in North Africa on the Mediterranean coast.
The hostages were formally released into United States custody the day after the signing of the Algiers Accords, just minutes after the new American president, Ronald Reagan, was sworn into office.
The Algiers Accords were a set of agreements between the United States and Iran to resolve the Iran hostage crisis, brokered by the Algerian government and signed in Algiers on January 19, 1981.
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989.
The crisis is considered a pivotal episode in the history of IranâUnited States relations.
There are no formal diplomatic relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America.
Political analysts cite it as a major factor in the trajectory of Jimmy Carterâs presidency and his loss in the 1980 presidential election.
In Iran, the crisis strengthened the prestige of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the political power of theocrats who opposed any normalization of relations with the West.
Sayyid Ruhollah MĆ«savi Khomeini, known in the Western world as Ayatollah Khomeini, was an Iranian Shia Muslim religious leader, philosopher, revolutionary and politician.
Ayatollah is a high-ranking title given to Usuli Twelver ShÄ«âah clerics.
