Iranians protest, burn US flags to mark embassy seizure

Thousands of Iranians burnt US flags on Friday while chanting "Death to America", to mark the 33rd anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran. This movement comes just days before the American presidential election.           

The demonstrators also shouted anti-British and anti-Israeli slogans, and burnt Israeli flags, as they gathered outside the site of the former embassy, labeled the "den of spies" by the Iranian authorities who sponsor the annual commemoration.              

This year's rally came just days before  US presidential election, expected to be held on November 6, in which Republican candidate Mitt Romney has made Iran's controversial nuclear program a top foreign policy issue.                  

"The greatest threat the world faces is a nuclear Iran," Romney said in a campaign debate with Barack Obama.                          

The anniversary of the November 4, 1979 embassy seizure, which witnessed Islamist students hold 52 US diplomats hostage for 444 days, is commemorated in Iran according to the Persian calendar and this year fell on November 2.