With Trump in the White House, Iranians mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution

Iranian demonstrators burn representations of the U.S. and Israeli flags during a rally commemorating anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the late pro-U.S. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and brought Islamic clerics to power, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

TEHRAN, Iran — Tens of thousands of Iranians marked the anniversary of the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the first such rally since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House and restarted his “maximum pressure” campaign targeting Tehran.

The annual commemoration of the end of the rule of the American-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the creation of Iran’s Shiite theocracy comes this year as deep uncertainty lingers across the country.

Iran faces crushing sanctions wrecking its economy and the threat of more coming from Trump, even as the American president suggests he wants to reach a deal with Tehran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program. Iran’s currency, the rial, fell to record low of 928,500 rials to US$1 in aftermarket trading on Monday, a drop of more than 6 per cent from Friday.

Also on Friday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had criticized proposed talks with the United States and described negotiations with America as “not intelligent, wise or honorable.” Khamenei also suggested that “there should be no negotiations with such a government,” though stopped short of issuing a direct order not to engage with Washington.

Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who long has struck a conciliatory tone toward the West, similarly took a harder line in a speech at Azadi, or Freedom, Square in Tehran. He declared Iran to be in a “full-fledged economy war.”

“Trump comes and announces let’s talk but at the same place he announces and signs all plots,” Pezeshkian said. ”They spread propaganda that the country has been weak. We are strong.”

“We never bow to the foreigners,” he added.

Demonstrators mock U.S. and Israel

People carried flags, balloons and banners as they marched toward Azadi Square in the Iranian capital despite sub-zero temperatures.

Alongside anti-American and anti-Israeli banners with slogans like “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” demonstrators also carried images of Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters.

A demonstrator held up a poster reading, “We are going to wipe out Israel.”

Iran’s military displayed replicas of some of its missiles at the square. People also took selfie photographers in front of a pickup truck carrying men wearing masks of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu behind bars.

“I know there are a lot of economic problems in the country, but I am here to say we will support our country regardless of threats by Trump and Israelis,” said Mohsen Amini, a 48-year-old teacher.

Hamideh Zamani, a 31-year-old homemaker wearing a flowing black Islamic chador, attended the rally with her two children.

“We will resist any threat by the West without any fear,” she said. ”We learned this from our fathers to devote ourselves for the cause of the Islamic Republic.”

Iranian state television aired commemorations at sites across the country, urging more people to turn out. The day, an official holiday, takes on a festival feel, with schools and government offices closed, and workers out in the streets.

Shah’s abdication led to the 1979 revolution

The Islamic Revolution began with widespread unrest in Iran over the rule of the shah who, terminally and secretly ill with cancer, fled Iran in January 1979. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini then returned from exile and the government fell on Feb. 11, 1979, after days of mass demonstrations and confrontations between protesters and security forces.

Later in April, Iranians voted to become an Islamic Republic, a Shiite theocracy with Khomeini as the country’s first supreme leader.

Months later, when the United States allowed the shah into the country for cancer treatment in New York, anger boiled over in Tehran leading to the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in November 1979 by militant students. The subsequent 444-day hostage crisis at the embassy in Tehran kindled decades of enmity.

Nasser Karimi, The Associated Press