Iran taunted the United States on the 41st anniversary Tuesday of the ouster of its ally the shah, as huge crowds gathered to mark the historic occasion. Waving national and Shiite flags and holding portraits of the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the crowds braved sub-zero temperatures in Tehran's iconic Azadi Square.

"It is unbearable for the United States to accept the victory of a great nation and that a superpower has been driven out of this land," President Hassan Rouhani told the gathering. "It is natural for them to have dreamed, for 41 years, of returning to this land, because they know that we are one of the most powerful countries" in the Middle East, he added.

Tehran and Washington have been enemies since 1979, when the government of the US-backed shah was toppled and the Islamic republic established. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had already fled Iran after months of protests against his rule.