"The American government never recognized the legitimacy of the Islamic Revolution. US authorities were finding ways to undermine the revolution in 1979," Ebtekar made the remarks in an exclusive interview with al-Ettejah Satellite Channel.
"They (US officials) orchestrated many coup plots in order to undermine the revolution. Students knew that a chain of events were underway (by the US) in order to sabotage the Islamic Revolution. So they drew this conclusion that the best way was to break into the US embassy (den of spies) and put an end to the plots," she further added.
"There were reports indicating that US intelligence forces were involved in funding the opposition group and instigating an atmosphere of insecurity in Iran. They (reports) were substantiated by the documents we later found in the American embassy," Ebtekar said.
The United States and Iran broke diplomatic relations in April 1980, after Iranian students seized the United States' espionage center at its embassy in Tehran. The two countries have had tense relations ever since, but have shown willingness to attend talks to help resolve regional issues, including security in Iraq. Yet, the two countries have avoided talks on bilateral issues for the last thirty five years.
November 4 marks three important events in Iranian history: the takeover of the former US embassy in Tehran by Muslim students following the Imam's line in 1979 and the exile of the late Founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini by the Shah in 1964. It also marks the massacre of a large number of Iranian school students by the army of the former Pahlavi regime during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Since the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran, Iranians have been celebrating the occasion every year by holding rallies on the anniversary and marking it as the National Day against the 'Global Arrogance'.
Elsewhere in her interview, Masoumeh Ebtekar underlined that the world mainstream media are promoting biased perspective against Iran, Islam and particularly Iranian women and said, "It's time to take a look at realities. Iran is a country facing challenges like any other country. It has gone through difficult times. Women have achieved major breakthroughs in many areas in Iran. They are considered as an integral part of the Iranian society. Iranian women are very active in various fields and are very successful. They've come along way from the past".
