Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has sent best wishes for Christmas:
May Jesus Christ, Prophet of love & peace, bless us all on this day. Wishing Merry #Christmas to those celebrating, esp Iranian Christians.
— Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) December 24, 2013
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, noted for his diplomacy and engagement with the “West” via social media, has also put out a Christmas message on Twitter:
May the spirit of Christmas bring joy, peace, empathy and compassion to everyone throughout the coming year. Merry Christmas.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) December 24, 2013
Zarif seized headlines in September when he sent best wishes via Twitter to all Jews for Rosh Hashanah.
The Supreme Leader also put out Christmas wishes, but with a different message for the “arrogant” West:
If #Christ were among us today, he would not spare even a single moment to fight the despotism &global #arrogance.
27/12/91
— khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) December 24, 2013
Meanwhile, the confusion continues over Rouhani’s editorial, written for a German newspaper, calling for better relations with the US as well as its Western partners.
Fars News claimed on Tuesday, citing Presidential advisor Mohammad Reza Sadeq, that the report of an editorial for Süddeutsche Zeitung is “completely untrue“.
However, Rouhani’s own Twitter message carried similar wishes to those in the claimed editorial.
And Project Syndicate, which is distributing and publishing a year-end collection of thoughts from world leaders, wrote on Twitter last night:
@EANewsFeed The #Rouhani op-ed is quite real. It was written for us. http://t.co/kEyuB1jYuj Part of this collection: http://t.co/U13vRUH1jL
— Project Syndicate (@ProSyn) December 24, 2013
