January 03-2014
Last Monday, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, a major German daily, carried an article under the byline of President Rohani saying the Islamic Republic “wants to rebuild and improve our relations with European and North American countries on the basis of mutual respect.” The article said, “We are striving to avoid new burdens on relations between Iran and the United States and to remove the tensions we have inherited.” But the Presidential Office swiftly announced that Rohani had sent nothing to Sueddeutsche Zeitung and branded the article a forgery. We have not heard anything from the newspaper about how it got the article—or from whom.