Former U.S. hostages in Iran say Trump’s bellicose threats revive their 1979 trauma – By Melissa Etehad (LA Times) / Jan 5 2020
President Trump warned Iran on Saturday that if it retaliated against the U.S. for killing Gen. Qassem Suleimani — one of Iran’s highest-level military figures — it would come to deeply regret it.
“Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge,” Trump wrote. “Let this serve as a warning that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago).”
In making such bellicose threats, Trump has reopened deep-seated wounds from the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-81.
Trump’s tweet also amplified feelings of anxiety for many Iranian Americans who had already been struggling to understand what the rise in tensions mean for their loved ones back in Iran.
That’s because for many in the diaspora, historical sites in Iran continue to represent a large part of their identity and remain a strong source of pride, helping to unite Iranians from all religious, social and political backgrounds.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took to twitter to respond to Trump, pointing out that “targeting cultural sites is a war crime.” Some legal observers on social media also noted that under the Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions, the deliberate targeting of cultural sites is prohibited.
Even though four decades have passed since Iranian protesters stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took the Americans hostage, resulting in a 444-day ordeal, those wounds continue to haunt Americans. The crisis is viewed by many as a watershed moment that reshaped U.S.-Iran relations. The two countries cut off formal diplomatic relations in 1980.
“By raising the idea of targeting 52 cultural sites, it seems to me Trump wants to dig into the resentment that the American public has about the hostage crisis,” said Ali Akbar Mahdi, a sociology professor at Cal State Northridge. “The American public has not forgotten the trauma of that. It’s always a reservoir that could be used for whatever political gain could be made from Iran.”
Continue to article: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-01-05/
Four of the Americans who spent 80 days being hidden by Canadian Embassy staff in Iran are Kathleen Stafford, left, Cora and Mark Lijek and Joseph Stafford. (Frank Lennon / Toronto Star via Getty Images)
