Sunday, August 04, 2013

A nice "moderate" start?

Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander, said the decision by Britain to decline the invitation to attend the inauguration ceremony of the new president of the Islamic Republic was “ill-judged and short sighted”.

It would be good to know what Douglas Alexander would have expected the UK representative to do when the rest of the invitees to the inauguration ceremony were asked to chant “Death to those who oppose the Supreme Leader, Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel” as seen in this clip from yesterday's inauguration ceremony?



And in this clip below, the Supreme Leader tells the inauguration audience how Iranians have only ever “tasted democracy” during the 34 year rule of the Islamic Republic, as the cameras pan across the elite and the beneficiaries of this “democracy”



The new “moderate” president is also seen here meeting the representative of North Korea, one of Islamic Republic’s closest allies



Former Iranian president, Mohamad Khatami, who did so much of the leg work to bring the crowds to the polling stations, wasn’t even allowed any where near the ceremony.

It was also unclear from the live coverage if Omar Al-Bashir was in the audience but Iran’s news media  were saying that the wanted war criminal was definitely amongst the invitees and would attend the inauguration ceremony.

It seems its business as usual for Islamic Republic but few nice words and a few smiles here and there can pull the wool over the eyes of many including those of Douglas Alexander.

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