Netanyahu Launches Twitter Campaign Against Iran’s Khamenei To Show 'Real Face Of Iran'

Ahead of the scheduled resumption of the international talks on Iran's nuclear program in Geneva Thursday morning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office launched a Twitter campaign against Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It focuses on protests in Iran marking the 34th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, at which demonstrators burned American flags and chanted “Death to America.”

On Monday night, the Prime Minister Office's official Twitter feed carried, under the topic “The Real Face of Iran,” one photograph of Iranians burning U.S. flags and another of Khamenei denouncing America, both from this week. Netanyahu’s spokesman to the Arab media, Ofir Gendelman, retweeted the images, as did the Israeli ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, and embassy spokesman Aharon Sagi.

The anti-American demonstrations in Tehran played right into Netanyahu’s hands. Ignoring the fact that the majority of Iranians, including President Hassan Rohani and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of his predecessors in the post, object strongly to the anti-U.S. rhetoric, Netanyahu cited them at a news conference on Monday with the visiting Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski and in an interview with Israeli English-language television channel i24News.

“There’s a debate in the West today,” Netanyahu said at the press conference, addressing Komorowski.

“People are saying: What is the true face of the Iranian regime? Because they have obviously changed their style. They speak now in English and they smile. They smile in the talks in Europe. But that regime, which is controlled by Khamenei, has tens of thousands of people on the streets of Tehran today chanting ‘death to America,’ celebrating the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in 1979, 34 years ago. They're celebrating, and Khamenei, who is the real ruler of Iran, yesterday says: ‘America is the most hated country in the world. You can't believe a word of what they say.’ And he fuels that hatred. That's the real Iran," Netanyahu said.

MORE...

http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/diplomania/.premium-1.556421