Responding to Iran's request for extradition of the Shah of Iran Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, the President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, provided for the Shah's travel plans to Panama. By doing so, Carter sought to eliminate the possibility of the extradition in exchange for hostages who were held by the revolutionary Iran for 444 days (November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981) after a group of Iranian revolutionary students affiliated with Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line broke into and entered the Embassy of the United States of America in Tehran, and took its diplomatic staff hostage. This, in turn, had been an action in response to the US offering political asylum to the Shah.[3][4] A week after the incident, the sheets and finances of Iran were confiscated by US[clarification needed].