When basiji “students” stormed the British Embassy in Tehran yesterday one first recalls events in November 1979 when students took 55 American diplomates and Embassy employees hostage for an incredible 444 days. Those days cemented the decade-long hostilities between the two countries. Those with Britain are not new. It is amazing that events both in 1953 and 1979 may repeat. Both must be considered disastrous in Iran’s great history.

The Stuxnet sabotage attempts of delaying the nuclear program, the assassinations of several of Iran’s nuclear scientists in previous months, a mysterious explosion in recent days at a military base at Bid Kaneh near Tehran with 17 Revolutionary Guards being killed which has resulted in huge damage to the complex; and probably another one in Esfahan on Monday this week. The regime in Tehran may be in considerable trouble.

Then, for weeks one allegation assault after the other had been rebutted by Iranian authorities, starting with the alleged assassination plot of Saudi Arabian Ambassador in Washington (which seems now to be considered even Inside the Beltway too bizarre to be further dealt with); the new IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear program and its infamous Annex (which turns out to be as old as 2009 and which former nuclear watchdog Mohamed Elbaradei had steadfastly declined to publish; and which contains the theory of a Russian scientists and pioneer in the production of nanodiamonds, Vyacheslav Danilenko, of having allegedly founded Iran’s military nuclear program when teaching at a University in Tehran between 1996 and 2002).

As yesterday’s storming of the British Embassy in Tehran shows, constant attempts (diplomatic and/or illicit) of isolating Iran by Western “arrogant powers” seem now to more and more merge with self-destructive elements in Iran itself. Which is regrettable.

Last update November 30, 2011.