Donald Trump claims that after the capture of the American embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, Iran held 52 American hostages for 444 days and that Kasem Suleimani was involved in this. We figure out if this is so.

It all started on January 3 with the murder of Iranian General Kasem Suleimani. Iran began to threaten a symmetrical answer, that is, a blow to American targets. After that, Trump erupted with a tweet in which he warned: if Iran strikes the Americans or American objects, then in response, the States attack 52 Iranian targets. These goals, according to the American president, are very significant for Iran and Iranian culture.

In addition, Trump explained: the choice of number 52 is not accidental, but symbolic. The fact is that it was so many American hostages that Iran kept 444 days after the capture of the American embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. And Suleimani began serving in the "Corps of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution" just in that very year.

The social networks immediately reacted to Trump's tweet. One of the users launched a quickly becoming a viral meme with a photograph in which these events are captured. In the photo, the second on the right is allegedly captured by a young Suleimani, who holds one of the hostages. According to the signature, Suleimani has long earned death.

Everything is so, but not quite. There are no questions to the picture: in 1979, the Associated Press agency was made. But the original photo has no signatures.

And the fact that it depicts Suleimani, it seems just a fake. On the one hand, there is no information confirming this version. On the other hand, there are many indirect information that refutes it.

The American embassy in Tehran captured 400 Muslim students, and Suleimani has never been a student. According to the voluminous profile in the New Yorker magazine, before joining the Islamic Revolution, he worked in the water supply department of his hometown of Kerman. And shortly after the victory of the revolution, he was sent to the northwest of Iran to suppress the rebellious Kurds.

The photograph was taken on November 8, 1979, so Suleimani did not have real chances to be on it. But in order to answer another important question, whether Suleimani actively developed plans to attack American diplomats and military personnel in Iran and throughout the region, as the Pentagon said, we still do not have enough data.