Well once again the western media is up to its old tricks. By “old tricks” I actually mean “completely unable to report simple facts”.
The BBC is one of the best of the western media so I’ll go with them:
Five Iranian speedboats harassed three US navy ships at the weekend, approaching them and radioing a threat to blow them up, US officials say.
The incident happened in the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route. The US said their ships were about to open fire when the Iranian boats withdrew.
The White House has warned Iran against “provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident”.
Iran played down the event, describing it as an “ordinary occurrence”.
‘Serious provocation’
The speedboats, identified as belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, came within about 200m of the US vessels, Pentagon officials said.
“I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes,” the Iranians said in a radio transmission, according to the officials.
The Iranian craft turned away “literally at the very moment that US forces were preparing to open fire”, the Associated Press reported, also citing an unnamed Pentagon official.
He said that it was “the most serious provocation of this sort” that had occurred to date.
Oh gosh sounds pretty intense doesn’t it? But what does IRAN have to say about it?
Well you can search and search and there’s one half quote from Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Larijani buried in a Ha’aretz article and one media outlet I’ve never heard of. That’s about it.
Larijani is in Syria for high-level meetings and spoke to the press corps. I wonder where we could find out what he said? Oh yeah on Iranian state media ! Wow what a shocker.
For some odd reason the English-language article truncates Larijani’s remarks, which is carried over in the Ha’aretz article. So for the record what follows is MY translation from Spanish:
The Supreme Leader’s delegate on the Supreme Council of National Security (basically Sec of State), Ali Larijani, has said that the threats by the government of George Bush, president of the United States, against Iran, “Seem to be the cries of old ladies who make a fuss when they get scared.”
Larijani, who made these statements during a press conference in Damascus, where he was making a personal visit, added, “These threats have no foundation or basis in reality. The only thing the Americans have done is show their tendency to provoke/cause headaches.”
Kazam! So Iran says it’s no big deal and the United States is screaming like an old woman. Obviously that’s kind of funny because it actually is true, although I don’t condone or like that kind of non-diplomatic speech. Ha’aretz changes it to “crying like old people” but it’s clearly written in the feminine in Spanish.
I guess this is the state of affairs we’ve sunk to – too lazy to even include the Iranian government’s statement and refusing to print or broadcast such a hilarious insult – hilarious because it’s true. Oh my, a boat came “near” to a naval vessel. My goodness, where did this happen? In international waters? On the very limit of Iranian territorial waters? Oh goodness oh my, where’s my reviving powders, I think I’ve got the vapors.
Meanwhile a whole lot less funny:
Iran does not intend to restore diplomatic relations with the U.S. broken in 1979, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Sunday.
“We have no plans to normalize relations with the U.S.,” Mohammad Ali Hosseini told journalists, adding that “because the U.S. is continuing its hostile policies against Iran, normalization of relations with the U.S. is not on Iran’s agenda.”
The statement followed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s speech on Thursday, when he said he would be “the first one to support” resumption of diplomatic ties with the U.S. when it is relevant, however adding that now it would be “harmful” to Iran.
Mercy.
Pax
