Millions of Iranians from all walks of life have thronged the streets across the country to celebrate the 41st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, which toppled the US-backed Pahlavi regime in 1979.
In Tehran, large groups of people, braving freezing temperatures, are taking 12 major routes across the capital leading to the iconic Azadi (freedom) Square, which played host to many of the anti-Pahlavi protests in the run-up to the Revolution.
President Hassan Rouhani is slated to deliver a speech to the demonstrators at the venue later in the day.
Iranians in other cities, towns and villages are also attending similar rallies en masse to renew their allegiance to the ideals of Imam Khomeini, the late architect of the Revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic.
Every year, the demonstrators chant slogans against the US and burn American flags to condemn the highly hostile agenda that Washington has been pursuing against the Iranian nation over the past four decades.
This year’s mass rallies are especially significant as they coincide with the 40th-day memorial for Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), who was assassinated together with his comrades in a US drone strike in Baghdad in early January.
The targeted killing of General Soleimani — the Middle East’s most prominent anti-terror commander — has sent anti-American sentiment soaring not only in Iran but also among regional nations.