TEHRAN, Iran — Iran on Friday started celebrating the 40th anniversary of the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah, overturned 2,500 years of monarchical rule and brought hard-line Shiite clerics to power. ADVERTISEMENTThe anniversary starts every year on Feb. 1 — the day Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned home from France, after 14 years in exile, to become the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iranian officials — including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani — on Wednesday paid homage to Khomeini’s tomb “to renew allegiance” to the late leader. Iranian state TV broadcast archive footage of Khomeini’s return and the daily mass demonstrations across Iran in support to his revolution. Supporters of the shah’s regime had closed the airport the week before and Khomeini’s allies in Tehran feared possible threats against his life.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer February 01, 2019 09:22 UTC