“Never threaten an Iranian,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif kindly reminded Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief — at least that’s the rumor going around. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reportedly added, “Nor the Russians.” According to Iranian state media Mehr News and Russian state-run news service RIA, the comments leaked by Russian sources were made after Mogherini threatened to leave the Iran talks in Vienna during a heated exchange over whether to lift a UN arms embargo on Iran, something both Iran and Russia support.

In an effort to seemingly clean up the leaked exchange that has made its rounds among Iranians and Iran watchers alike, a member of Iran’s negotiating team quoted Zarif as saying, “Ms. Mogherini has always had a very positive and constructive role in negotiations and our relationship has been governed by mutual respect and today also we had a very positive and constructive meeting.”

Whether the foreign minister’s response was verbatim or not, the Iranian people took Mogherini’s threat personally — or at least found some humor in it — when they went on social media to remind the EU’s foreign policy chief and the rest of the P5+1 (Britain, China, France, Russia, United States, plus Germany) through the hashtag #NeverThreatenAnIranian.

Hashtag threats