Arash Aramesh

Pro-government media in Iran continued their praise of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s performance May 3 at the UN summit on Non Proliferation Review. Kayhan, the largest state owned newspaper with direct ties to Supreme Leader Khamenei argued in its editorial that the NPT was no longer working and Ahmadinejad’s recommendations must be implemented in order to create a nuclear agreement that is acceptable to all nations.

Fars news, a semi-official news agency with close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, reported that Ahmadinejad was the center of attention in New York and that he accused Western powers of trying to maintain a monopoly on nuclear technology.

Ahmadinejad’s claim that nuclear powers want to deprive other countries of accessing nuclear technology represents the feelings of a number of nations, in particular those in the Non Aligned movement.

Raja, a website close to Ahmadinejad, declared Iran the winner in the “diplomatic duel with the US” and wrote, “Many Western diplomats and political analysts believe that Ahmadinejad performs unpredictable and surprising diplomatic moves.” Raja asserted, “This time, the Iranian president, who was the only president present at the summit, managed to offer accurate and calculated recommendations to showcase the weaknesses of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the NPT.”

The focus of Iran’s state-owned media was to portray a huge win for Ahmadinejad and a major defeat for the West. Pro-government media made numerous references to articles and news pieces in Western newspapers and reports on Western television channels that said anything positive about Ahmadinejad. The objective of the state-owned Iranian media is to convince the masses in Iran that the world has admitted to its defeat by Ahmadinejad and that the Iranian president is very popular around the globe, even in New York City.

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Broadcasting, which is commonly referred to as the Iranian radio and television, spun other events that occurred in New York. For instance, a number of anti-Israeli rabbis were shown repeatedly on Iranian television welcoming Ahmadinejad and denouncing Israel. IRIB did not show the footage of US and other diplomats leaving the UN building during Ahmadinejad’s speech.

There seems to be an information vacuum in Iran about the nuclear program and the status of Iran’s negotiations with the West. Press TV reported briefly yesterday that Iran accepted the nuclear fuel swap, but no Iranian publication thus far has reported on this important possible breakthrough. This might lead some to believe that Iran is not serious about the uranium exchange offer and is going to backtrack again as it did last October.