Rouhani media launches rare attack on hard-line critic in parliament
In a rare move, the news agency that operates under Hassan Rouhani has responded with an attack on a staunch critic in parliament for spreading “lies.”
The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), which operates under President Hassan Rouhani's administration, has published a rare attack on a conservative parliamentarian, signaling that the era of the conservative media monopoly on harsh attacks against officials is coming to an end.
In a two-minute video published on their website and Twitter feed, IRNA lashed out at Javad Karimi Ghodoosi, writing that the conservative lawmaker from Mashhad “once again lied and once again [his assertions] were denied.”
The video outlined a number of Karimi Ghodoosi's accusations against the Rouhani administration, which were quickly denied or shown to be not true, including one that was denied by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In a video clip that went viral on Persian-language social media pages, Karimi Ghodoosi claimed that the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC had recorded a conversation between Rouhani and MI6 — the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom — and had shown the recordings to Rouhani. Head of public relations at the IRGC Ramazan Sharif publicly denied the claim on Feb. 25 and asked members of parliament to refrain from such accusations. According to the IRNA, this is the first time the IRGC has had to publicly deny Karimi Ghodoosi’s accusations.
The IRNA video also revealed that Karimi Ghodoosi’s claim that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s resignation had been accepted by Rouhani was just one of his “lies” this week.
