TEHRAN – 45 years ago, on April 25, 1980, the United States launched a secret military operation in the Tabas Desert in northeastern Iran, called Operation Eagle Claw, targeting officials at the US Embassy in Tehran. However, it ended with a complete obstacle due to the sandstorm.
The US Embassy staff were detained by revolutionary Iranian students after taking over the embassy from November 4, 1979. He returned the Mohammad Reza Shah Pallavi in Washington and stopped interfering with Iran’s problems in the post-revolutionary era.
A few weeks earlier, Washington broke diplomatic relations with Tehran on April 7, 1980, holding five months of failed negotiations on the issue.
Operation failure
The operation was performed by the US Delta Army but failed because the sandstorm grounded the force and its helicopter.
The Delta Army, a trained special forces, began surgery following orders from then-US President Jimmy Carter. The troops had undergone special training exercises for the mission.
The operation was scheduled to take place in two days. From April 19th, troops were deployed in Oman and in the Arabian Sea. Using radar blind spots, three cargo planes and eight helicopters entered Iranian airspace.
The helicopter and C-130 aircraft were scheduled to meet in the Tabas Desert in Holasan Province (code name Desert 1), located about 200 miles southeast of Tehran. So the helicopter was to refuel from the C-130 and pick up commands. Helicopters transport troops to mountain locations. From there, the actual Air Rifung mission will begin the next night. However, the mission turns out to be a humiliating defeat when a sandstorm hits and defeats a group of US military groups in the Tabas Desert.
It turns out that one of the helicopters crashed into a C-130 Hercules transport plane, leaving five other choppers left in the sand. The US combat forces had no choice but to abort the mission. Eight of the US commanders were killed at the scene.
According to American accounts of the incident, the aircraft encountered Haboob, a violent, wind-driven sandstorm common in the desert. This has resulted in extreme vision problems, aircraft damage and crew illness. President Carter and his staff received the news and decided to cancel the mission.
Iranians’ reaction to the news
Iranians believe that sand was a god’s agent. The aggressive behavior was fortunate to have encountered exemplary failures in light of God’s grace.
Revolutionary leader Imam Khomeini had put weight behind revolutionary students to take over the US embassy, which was already suspected of being a “spy nest,” but Carter said he had allowed a operation to secure re-election in the presidential election.
Imam Khomeini also said that sand particles and strong winds were assigned by the Almighty God to destroy all American war machines in Tabas.
Many believe that the incident played a major role in Carter’s defeat in the 1980 presidential election. Carter’s national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski later confirmed that his boss had approved a failed operation, and denounced his boss’s defeat in the election in a fiasco, causing frustration among American voters.
On the anniversary of the great failure, Iran reminds the United States of its humiliating defeat in an invasion of territorial integrity and advises Washington to learn a lesson. Tehran also calls for an end to more than 40 years of hostility towards a resistant Iranian state.
What is noteworthy is that it is now much stronger than the early years after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. It was ineffective for US sanctions and threats.
Observers argue that the US military is considered a major blow and that Eagle Claw’s operations serve as a warning to President Donald Trump not launching the war.