Tasnim news agency in Iran says some foreign media and analysts got a tweet by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei wrong and portrayed it as if he was prepared to make peace with the United States.
The IRGC-linked news agency said that the interpretation about the tweet in praise of Imam Hassan, the second Shiite Imam, as a peace-maker was biased. Imam Hassan is known in the history of the Shiites for making a peace deal with his enemies, while his brother the non-compromising Imam Hussain was "martyred" in the course of a clash with his enemies.
Meanwhile, Tasnim charged that misinterpreting Khamenei's words would be an act of "treason" in the country's current situation.
Many on social media recirculated the tweet from Khameni's accounts believing it is a move to signal his readiness to negotiate with the United States.
Tasnim explained that the tweet was taken from an old speech by Khamenei. Some Iran experts had explained on Twitter that Khamenei does not personally tweet and probably a social media aide had chosen to re-publish an old statement from him.
Ayatollah Khamenei translated a book about Imam Hassan and his peace deal in 1977 and used this example when he came up with the idea of “heroic flexibility”, ahead of 2015 nuclear deal with world power.
Saturday May 9 coincided with Imam Hassan's birthday and this justified the re-publishing of the old comment from Khamenei's website.