Iran student leader says he regrets 1979 US Embassy attack

His revolutionary fervor diminished by years that have also turned his dark brown hair white, one of Iranian student leers of 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover says he w regrets seizure of diplomatic compound and 444-day host crisis that followed.

Speaking to Associated Press ahe of Monday's 40th anniversary of attack, Ebrahim Asgharzeh ackwledged that repercussions of crisis still reverberate as tensions remain high between U.S. and Iran over Tehran's collapsing nuclear deal with world powers.

Asgharzeh cautioned ors against following in his footsteps, despite takeover becoming enshrined in hard-line mythology. He also disputed a revisionist history w being offered by supporters of Iran's Revolutionary Guard that y directed attack, insisting all blame rested with Islamist students who let crisis spin out of control.

"Like Jesus Christ, I bear all sins on my shoulders," Asgharzeh said.

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At time, what led to 1979 takeover remained obscure to Americans who for months could only watch in horror as TV newscasts showed Iranian protests at embassy. Popular anger against U.S. was rooted in 1953 CIA-engineered coup that toppled Iran's elected prime minister and cemented power of Shah Mohamm Reza Pahlavi.

shah, dying from cancer, fled Iran in February 1979, paving way for its Islamic Revolution. But for months, Iran faced widespre unrest ranging from separatist attacks, worker revolts and internal power struggles. Police reported for work but t for duty, allowing chaos like Marxist students briefly seizing U.S. Embassy.

In this power vacuum, n-President Jimmy Carter allowed Shah to seek medical treatment in New York. That lit fuse for v. 4, 1979, takeover, though at first, Islamist students argued over which embassy to seize. A student leer named Mahmoud Ahminej, who later became president in 2005, argued y should seize Soviet Embassy compound in Tehran as leftists h caused political chaos.

But students settled on U.S. Embassy, hoping to pressure Carter to send Shah back to Iran to stand trial on corruption charges. Asgharzeh, n a 23-year-old engineering student, remembers friends going to Tehran's Grand Bazaar to buy a bolt cutter, a popular tool used by criminals, and salesman saying: "You do t look like thieves! You certainly want to open up U.S. Embassy door with it!"

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" society was rey for it to happen. Everything happened so fast," Asgharzeh said. "We cut off chains on embassy's gate. Some of us climbed up walls and we occupied embassy compound very fast."

Like or former students, Asgharzeh said plan h been simply to st a sit-in. But situation soon spun out of ir control. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, long-exiled Shiite cleric whose return to Iran sparked revolution, gave his support to takeover. He would use that popular angle to expand Islamists' power.

"We, students, take responsibility for first 48 hours of takeover," Asgharzeh said. "Later, it was out of our hands since late Supreme Leer Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and establishment supported it."

He ded: "Our plan was one of students, unprofessional and temporary."

As time went on, it slowly dawned on naive students that Americans wouldn't join ir revolution. While a rescue attempt by U.S. military would fail and Carter would lose to Ronald Reagan amid crisis, U.S. as a whole expressed worry about hosts by displaying yellow ribbons and counting days of ir captivity.

As months passed, things only got worse. Asgharzeh said he thought it would end once shah left America or later with his death in Egypt in July 1980. It didn't.

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"A few months after takeover, it appeared to be turning into a rotten fruit hanging down from a tree and one h cour to take it down and resolve matter," he said. "re was a lot of public opinion support behind move in society. society felt it h slapped America, a superpower, on mouth and people believed that takeover proved to America that ir democratic revolution h been stabilized."

It hn't, though. eight-year Iran-Iraq War would break out during crisis. host crisis and later war boosted position of hard-liners who sought strict implementation of ir version of Islamic beliefs.

Seizing or attacking diplomatic posts remains a tactic of Iranian hard-liners to this day. A mob stormed British Embassy in Tehran in 2011, while ar attacked diplomatic posts of Saudi Arabia in 2016, which led to diplomatic ties being cut between Tehran and Riyh. And Iran will commemorate 40th anniversary of U.S. Embassy takeover on Monday by staging a rally in front of Tehran compound where it was located.

However, Asgharzeh denied that Iran's n-nascent Revolutionary Guard directed U.S. Embassy takeover, although he said it was informed before attack over fears that security forces would storm compound and retake it. Many at time believed shah would launch a coup, like in 1953, to regain power.

"In a very limited way, we informed one of Guard's units and y accepted to protect embassy from outside," Asgharzeh said. " claim (by hard-liners) on Guard's role lacks credit. I am main narrator of incident and I am still alive."

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In years since Asgharzeh has become a reformist politician and served prison time for his views. He has argued that Iran should work toward improving ties with U.S., a difficult task amid President Donald Trump's maximalist campaign against Tehran.

"It is too difficult to say when relations between Tehran and Washington can be restored," Asgharzeh said. "I do t see any prospect."