In an address to a Monday ceremony in Tehran to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy, Major General Mousavi said Iran’s policy of active resistance has forced the arrogant powers to change their behavior and calculations, Tasnim News Agency reported.

Their reasonable officials have realized that the “era of pressures with a zero cost has ended,” the commander said, adding, “Iran has the necessary facilities, determination, and consensus to respond to imposed pressures.”

Enumerating the US government’s hostile measures against Iran, the top general said the Islamic resistance and the battle against arrogance have inflicted defeats on the US, which he said is rapidly heading toward the country’s downfall under President Donald Trump.

The commander also highlighted Iran’s leading role and influence in West Asia, saying the concept of resistance has been promoted across the region and turned into an effective model for countering hegemony.

Also, the Iranian Army, in a statement on the same occasion, reiterated its readiness to protect the security of the Islamic Republic’s people.

“The seizure of the Den of Espionage by the students following the line of [the founder of the Islamic Republic] Imam [Khomeini] proved that wherever the US is present, there would be discord, turmoil, and protest,” the army said in the statement released on Sunday evening, referring to the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran.

“One of the reasons why our dear country’s security today has become exemplary to enemies’ dismay, is the absence of the American Embassy in Tehran,” it added.

US officials have made numerous attempts to reopen their embassy in recent years to sow discord among the Iranian people, the army said.

“Today, more than ever, it has been proven that regional policies of the US have failed,” it stated, adding that White House leaders are pursuing their goals through sowing discords and waging civil wars.

“The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran are vigilant enough to counter any destructive move by the enemy to undermine (the country’s) security and peace… and never make light of the security of the people,” the statement read.

On November 4, 1979, and in less than a year after the victory of the Islamic Revolution that toppled a US-backed monarchy, Iranian university students who called themselves “students following the line of Imam [Khomeini]” seized the US Embassy in Tehran, which had become a center of espionage and planning to overthrow the newly established Islamic system in Iran.

The students who seized the embassy later published documents proving that the compound was indeed engaged in plans and measures to overthrow the Islamic Republic.

Every year on the 13th day of the Iranian month of Aban (which this year fell on November 4), the Iranian people, particularly students, hold rallies across the country to mark the day.