November 22-2013
Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif has told reporters in Europe that he accepts that US Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman did not call all Iranians liars.
. . . deceptive DNA
But the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) did not accept Zarif’s explanation. In fact, it even changed Sherman’s quote in its English-language service to make it appear that Sherman really was insulting all Iranians.
Zarif was asked about the controversial quote by a reporter and responded, “The Americans have officially announced that she did not mean to insult the Iranian people.”
In testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month, Sherman and some senators sparred over whether the government of the Islamic Republic could be trusted to keep any agreement. Sherman said Washington had a lot of experience with the Islamic Republic and wasn’t about to be fooled by its shenanigans. “We know that deception is part of their DNA,” she said, in what could be taken as an insult to Zarif and the other officials Sherman deals with.
But Zarif did not take offense and did not endorse the media campaign that has been going on in Iran condemning Sherman as hostile and as hating the Iranian people.
In its English language story on Zarif’s comments, IRNA—which is the state-owned news agency—actually changed Sherman’s remark to make it sound as if she was attacking the Iranian people and not officials of the Islamic Republic. IRNA falsely quoted her as saying: “We know that deception is part of the Iranians’ DNA.”