Anti-American rallies as Iran marks 1979 US embassy siege

With anti-American slogans and effigies mocking President Donald Trump, thousands rallied outside the former US embassy in Tehran on Monday to mark the 40th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis.

Rallies also took place in several other cities four decades to the day after revolutionary students stormed the complex and seized dozens of American diplomats and embassy staff -- an event that still strains ties.

"They will continue their enmity against us. They are like a lethal scorpion whose nature is to have a poisonous sting," the head of the army, General Abdolrahim Mousavi, said in a speech in Tehran.

"We are ready to crush this scorpion and will also pay the price." He slammed the idea of interacting with the United States as a ruse, echoing recent remarks by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Words like negotiation are a "gift wrapping ... hiding the discourse of submission and defeat," Mousavi said, adding that the only way forward is "to maintain the revolutionary ...