Baku, Azerbaijan, March 31
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The Twitter account attributed to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, chairman of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council, has modified its controversial tweet following the recent harsh criticism by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The account believed to be close to Rafsanjani, a former president and influential supporter of Iran's moderate President Hassan Rouhani, tweeted March 24 that "tomorrow's world is the world of dialogue, not of missiles."
During a speech March 30, Khamenei, while defending Iran's missile program, accused its critics of "treason."
Khamenei's website quoted him as saying those in Iran, who claim that tomorrow's world is the world of negotiations, not of missiles, show their unawareness if they say this unwarily, otherwise such claims constitute "treason".
Following that, the Twitter account, which introduces itself as an account of Rafsanjani's official website, posted an "amendment tweet" saying the controversial post was a summarized version of a full comment.
According to the new tweet, Rafsanjani's full comment read, "tomorrow's world is the world of discourses, such as the Islamic Revolution discourse, not of intercontinental missiles and nuclear bombs."
After the first tweet was posted last week the Iranian conservatives attacked the 81-year old influential politician, accusing him of "undermining the government's stance" and "justifying" the West's promotional war against Iran's missile program.
However, the explanation and revision to the tweet were made only after Khamenei's yesterday remarks.
Iran's ISNA news agency, close to moderates, also quoted an "informed source" as saying March 31 that Rafsanjani doesn't have any Twitter account.
The account that posted the disputed tweet is run by chief editor of Rajsanjani's official website, and the veteran politician doesn't control its contents, according to the report.