Yesterday, Iranian press as well Persian language press abroad reported that as part of his speech Khamenei had referred to Israel as “the filthy rabid dog of the
region”.
It seems that they got this part of his speech wrong.
My colleague Arash Karami from Al Monitor’s Iran Pulse corrected this by pointing to the text and audio (minute 21) file of Khamenei’s speech. I checked them both.
It turns out that in that part of his speech Khamenei was not referring to Israel but was lambasting the “rabid evil filthy dog of the region in the Zionist regime”. In other words he was attacking a person, in this case most probably Prime Minister Netanyahu.
كه گاهى شنيده ميشود دشمنان ملّت ايران، از جمله از دهان نحسِ نجسِ سگِ هار منطقه در رژيم صهيونيستى، چانه ميجنبانند كه ايران تهديد همهى جهان است؛ نه، اين سخنِ دشمن و درست نقطهى مقابل ممشاى اسلامى است
This was a terrible and insulting attack. What made it worst was the participants shouting “death to Israel” as soon as he said this.
Nevertheless, this is the accurate translation and the Iranian press got it wrong, again.
It must be noted that Khamenei’s official twitter account called Israel a rabid dog afterwards (see below).
Unsurprising behavior from Iran’s most senior holocaust denier who has declared publicly in the past that his regime is not just against the government, but also the people of Israel.
SCOOP!
Excellent.
Now I have a huge problem.
Aside from his cynophobia, I agree with the Leader.
My head hurts…