Iran Hostage Crisis
The seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran (1979–1981) and the 444-day holding of American diplomats hostage, which shaped Iran–US relations for decades.
Read in context →At a glance
- Period
- 4 Nov 1979 – 20 Jan 1981 (444 days)
- Location
- U.S. Embassy, Tehran
- Hostages
- 52 Americans
- Resolution
- Algiers Accords; release of hostages
Detail
The U.S. Embassy hostage crisis (1979–1981) was a defining event in Iran-U.S. relations and the early years of the Islamic Republic. On 4 November 1979, a group of revolutionary students calling themselves the "Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line" seized the United States embassy in Tehran and took 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage. The principal motive was anger at the admission of Mohammad Reza Shah into the U.S. for medical treatment and fear of a repeat of a 1953-style coup to restore him. The action, which Khomeini endorsed, brought tensions to a peak; the U.S. severed diplomatic relations and imposed sanctions, and a military rescue operation ("Eagle Claw") in April 1980 failed, killing several American servicemen. The crisis lasted 444 days and ended through Algerian mediation and the signing of the "Algiers Accords," with the hostages released on 20 January 1981—precisely as Ronald Reagan was inaugurated. The event led to a long rupture in relations between the two countries and enduring mutual distrust.
Related entities
Sources
- Encyclopædia Iranica, "Hostage Crisis"
- Mark Bowden, Guests of the Ayatollah
- David Farber, Taken Hostage: The Iran Hostage Crisis and America's First Encounter with Radical Islam