Earlier today, Iran’s semi-official news agency ILNA reported that
the country’s influential elder statesman and former president Ayatollah Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani has blamed the Syrian government for the recent chemical
attack in Syria. Here was the quote used in that earlier report:
“The (Syrian) people have been the target of chemical attacks by their own government and now they must also wait for an attack by foreigners,” Rafsanjani said. “The people of Syria have seen much damage in these two years.” (ILNA, 1 September)
later during the day, ILNA changed the quotation by dropping the reference to the Syrian government:
“The (Syrian) people have been the target of chemical attacks and now they must also wait for an attack by foreigners,” Rafsanjani said. “The people of Syria have seen much damage in these two years.” (ILNA, 1 September)
As customary in Iranian official press, ILNA did not offer any explanations for changing the quotation of such a senior official on such an important topic.
Blogger’s Note: Rafsanjani was the de-facto commander-in-chief of Iranian armed forces during the 1980s war with Iraq, when Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against the Iranians in 1988. Saddam and his Ba’athist propaganda machine, including then foreign minister Tariq Aziz, blamed the Iranians for the chemical attack.
“The (Syrian) people have been the target of chemical attacks by their own government and now they must also wait for an attack by foreigners,” Rafsanjani said. “The people of Syria have seen much damage in these two years.” (ILNA, 1 September)
later during the day, ILNA changed the quotation by dropping the reference to the Syrian government:
“The (Syrian) people have been the target of chemical attacks and now they must also wait for an attack by foreigners,” Rafsanjani said. “The people of Syria have seen much damage in these two years.” (ILNA, 1 September)
As customary in Iranian official press, ILNA did not offer any explanations for changing the quotation of such a senior official on such an important topic.
Blogger’s Note: Rafsanjani was the de-facto commander-in-chief of Iranian armed forces during the 1980s war with Iraq, when Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against the Iranians in 1988. Saddam and his Ba’athist propaganda machine, including then foreign minister Tariq Aziz, blamed the Iranians for the chemical attack.
Ironically, another Ba’athist Arab leader, Bashar al-Assad, is now
blaming the opposition for the chemical attack in Syria. Rafsanjani is too
experienced to fall for such claims; his own countrymen were the subject of the
war crime and the horror of the chemical attack by a manipulating Ba’athist
leader three decades earlier.
File photo: Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (ILNA)
File photo: Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (ILNA)
