A former leader of the group responsible for storming the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and taking American hostages has been criticized for offering an apology to the families of the hostages.

“Talk of an apology is not from one administration to another, but of sympathy for families of individuals that for any reason were mentally and spiritually hurt,” Ebrahim Asgharzadeh told the Iranian Students’ News Agency on April 14.

As a member of the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line who stormed the embassy and held 52 hostages for 444 days, Asgharzadeh was asked to weigh in on the controversy over Iran’s pick for its new United Nations envoy, Hamid Aboutalebi.

Asgharzadeh, who like many of those involved in the hostage crisis is now a Reformist political figure, added, “This kind of humanitarian initiative is not new. It’s something that [former President Mohammad] Khatami, maybe 15 or 16 years ago in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, expressed sympathy for the pain and suffering the American diplomats endured for 444 days as hostages.” He compared an Iranian apology to then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s apology for the 1953 coup that overthrew former Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.