naturalfeature:back channel

Iranians, irked by Netanyahu comment, tweet photos of their jeans | The Back Channel
▻http://backchannel.al-monitor.com/index.php/2013/10/6489/young-iranians-take-to-twitter-to-mock-netanyahu-comments-on

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his first interview with the BBC’s Persian language service broadcast into Iran Saturday, appeared to offend many young, educated Iranians he presumably meant to appeal to with comments they said revealed he is deeply out of touch with Iranian society.

While Netanyahu in the interview repeated familiar talking points–dismissing the power of Iran’s elected president Hassan Rouhani in the Islamic Republic system and arguing Iran should not be allowed to have a nuclear enrichment capability–it was his assertion that Iranians are not free to wear jeans and listen to western music that set off a social media firestorm.

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Best #jeans photo so far: with #Iran SL. Via @rooznameh pic.twitter.com/ZRQNaaD7Of

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Iran’s Rouhani wishes Jews blessed Rosh Hashanah |
The Back Channel

▻http://backchannel.al-monitor.com/index.php/2013/09/6125/irans-rouhani-wishes-jews-blessed-rosh-hashanah

“Not even under the monarchy do we remember such a message,” Haleh Esfandiari, the Iranian-born scholar who heads the Middle East program at the Woodrow Willson International Center, said of the message.

Rouhani’s well wishes to the Jewish people come as the Iranian mission at the United Nations confirmed to Al-Monitor that he will travel to New York later this month to address the United Nations General Assembly and participate in a disarmament meeting.

Rouhani is scheduled to address the General Assembly on the afternoon of September 24th, the same day that US President Obama will address the body in the morning.

It also comes as Rouhani and Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif have sent multiple messages condemning the use of chemical weapons in Syria, Iran’s ally, while not saying explicitly they believe it was done by the Assad regime, and while urging against U.S.-led action. Foreign Iranian President Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, however, is reported to have accused the Syrian government of gassing its own people at a lecture last week, allegedly recorded on video, even as other reports say his office had denied the comment.