Tehran: Morsi’s criticism of Assad lost in translation

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Newly-elected Egyptian leader Mohammed Morsi made international headlines Thursday when he criticised Iran’s ally Bashar al-Assad at the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran. Iranian interpreters quickly deflected the criticism by by simply swapping “Syria” for “Bahrain”.

In his much-awaited speech on August 30 the newly-elected Egyptian president said: “The revolution in Egypt is the cornerstone for the Arab Spring, which started days after Tunisia and then it was followed by Libya and Yemen and now the revolution in Syria against its oppressive regime.”

This prompted the Syrian delegation to walk out of the summit, although the millions of Iranians watching the event on TV or listening on the radio were told Morsi was actually referring to Bahrain.

And when Morsi called on the fractured Syrian opposition movement to unite, the interpreters slipped in another a convenient swap for Bahrain, a Gulf State where largely Shiite protests against the ruling Sunni monarchy have been supported by Iran.

What was lost in translation during the live speech had mileage beyond the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran.

Conservative Iranian website Farda quoted Morsi saying that he hoped Syria’s “popular regime” would survive and that the Syrian people was “free” and would “resist the will of foreign plotters”.

In fact, Morsi had told the summit that “our solidarity with the struggle of Syrians against an oppressive regime that has lost its legitimacy is an ethical duty, and a political and strategic necessity.”

Ban Ki-moon puts the boot in on Israel

Shiite theocracy Iran is one of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s staunchest supporters in the face of an increasingly bloody uprising that began in March 2011.

Ahead of the NAM summit, Tehran had touted historic Morsi’s visit – the first by an Egyptian ruler in decades – as a diplomatic triumph.

Sadly for the Iranian leaders, Morsi was not so obliging to his hosts.

Neither was UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, whose presence at the summit had been criticised by both the USA and Israel.

Ban was broadly critical of Iran, which sees Israel as its arch-enemy and is suspected of developing nuclear weapons, even if he did not mention the Islamic Republic by name.

“I strongly reject threats by any member state to destroy another or outrageous attempts to deny historical facts such as the Holocaust,” he said in his speech.

“Claiming that Israel does not have the right to exist or describing it in racist terms is not only wrong but undermines the very principle we all have pledged to uphold.”

France 24

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25 responses to “Tehran: Morsi’s criticism of Assad lost in translation”

  1. Hannibal Avatar

    “Claiming that Israel does not have the right to exist or describing it in racist terms is not only wrong but undermines the very principle we all have pledged to uphold.” This is weird as that is simply rhetoric but what of Israel factually leaving a nation without land and murdering NOT individuals but an entire nation and a civilization by denying Palestinians their right to exist. Two sovereign states living side by side in peace or one state and it won’t be Israel. It is simple demographics. With time they will outbreed you and you know it.

    1. hannihabal Avatar

      tafalsafa al himar fa shahnaka; oops i am sorry for donkeys, they r really cute animals and much more intelligent than this hannibahl

  2. “Claiming that Israel does not have the right to exist or describing it in racist terms is not only wrong but undermines the very principle we all have pledged to uphold.” This is weird as that is simply rhetoric but what of Israel factually leaving a nation without land and murdering NOT individuals but an entire nation and a civilization by denying Palestinians their right to exist. Two sovereign states living side by side in peace or one state and it won’t be Israel. It is simple demographics. With time they will outbreed you and you know it.

    1. hannihabal Avatar

      tafalsafa al himar fa shahnaka; oops i am sorry for donkeys, they r really cute animals and much more intelligent than this hannibahl

      1. @yalibnan:disqus Another example of self attacks… No reason whatsoever…

        1. hannihabal Avatar

          sissy, u shoud have poor memory, u forgot the big words u used, big words i qualified as bigger zan your brain, zat even street or stray hounds woud be ashamed to utter

  3. This was not lost in translation at all.It was all planned in advance by Mullahs to make Morsi look like a an ignorant fool ( his aides had probably told him immediately of the translation ) . This incident goes to show that in the hierarchy of being puppet mercenaries of C I A / M I 8 , Mullahs have the upper hand.

  4. This was not lost in translation at all.It was all planned in advance by Mullahs to make Morsi look like a an ignorant fool ( his aides had probably told him immediately of the translation ) . This incident goes to show that in the hierarchy of being puppet mercenaries of C I A / M I 8 , Mullahs have the upper hand.

  5. This was not lost in translation at all.It was all planned in advance by Mullahs to make Morsi look like a an ignorant fool ( his aides had probably told him immediately of the translation ) . This incident goes to show that in the hierarchy of being puppet mercenaries of C I A / M I 8 , Mullahs have the upper hand.

  6. No surprise!They control everything ,what people say,write ,believe ,,etc;;!!!

  7. No surprise!They control everything ,what people say,write ,believe ,,etc;;!!!

  8. Mahdi Kenaani Avatar
    Mahdi Kenaani

    whats the big deal??? ahmadinejad himself has been misquoted by the west so many times but apparently thats okay. Do i really have to remind people about the whole “wipe israHELL off the map”-crap? not that it would make me sad in any way if it happened…  

    Well, please have another shot translating what ahmadinejad said written in Pinglish: ”Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad.”

  9. Mahdi Kenaani Avatar
    Mahdi Kenaani

    whats the big deal??? ahmadinejad himself has been misquoted by the west so many times but apparently thats okay. Do i really have to remind people about the whole “wipe israHELL off the map”-crap? not that it would make me sad in any way if it happened…  

    Well, please have another shot translating what ahmadinejad said written in Pinglish: ”Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad.”

  10. Mahdi Kenaani Avatar
    Mahdi Kenaani

    whats the big deal??? ahmadinejad himself has been misquoted by the west so many times but apparently thats okay. Do i really have to remind people about the whole “wipe israHELL off the map”-crap? not that it would make me sad in any way if it happened…  

    Well, please have another shot translating what ahmadinejad said written in Pinglish/Finglish: ”Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad.”

  11. Constantin7 Avatar
    Constantin7

    One fanatic versus another fanatic host…who cares about these 2 extremes….. Kel wahed bighanni aa mewelo…a dialogue of deafs

    1. hannihabal Avatar

      and all thru your typings in zis blog u have been siding wiz one of ze fanatics; may be u dont know it yet but u r a fanatic too, supporting the wahhabi free syrian arsy

  12. Constantin7 Avatar
    Constantin7

    One fanatic versus another fanatic host…who cares about these 2 extremes….. Kel wahed bighanni aa mewelo…a dialogue of deafs

    1. hannihabal Avatar

      and all thru your typings in zis blog u have been siding wiz one of ze fanatics; may be u dont know it yet but u r a fanatic too, supporting the wahhabi free syrian arsy

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