The poster showed a US negotiator at a table with a dog at his side
The posters too nakedly displayed the duplicity of Iran’s new “moderate” stance. They had to come down. But at the same time, Iran has launched a new “Death to America” art contest.
“Iran pulls down anti-US posters in capital,” from AFP, October 27 (thanks to Maxwell):
Tehran (AFP) – The Tehran municipality has removed anti-American posters from the streets of the capital which questioned US honesty in nuclear talks with Iran, media reported on Sunday.
The move comes as President Hassan Rouhani, a reputed moderate, has made fresh overtures to the West, including direct talks between US and Iranian officials, and ahead of the 34th anniversary of the US embassy seizure in Tehran.
A municipal spokesman said the posters were put up across Tehran without any official authorisation.
“In an arbitrary act and without the knowledge and confirmation of the municipality, one of the advertising agencies had put up these posters,” spokesman Hadi Ayyazi was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
AFP photographers said that some posters could still be seen across Tehran.
One of them, bearing the words “American honesty,” shows US and Iranian negotiators sitting at a table and facing each other, the American wearing a jacket and tie but with army pants and boots underneath.
Ehsan Mohammad-Hassani, head of the Oj adverting agency, which produced the posters, told the Fars news agency they did not reflect hostility towards US-Iranian nuclear talks.
“The American Honesty posters do not have any objection against Iran-America negotiations,” he was quoted as saying.
Rouhani, a moderate cleric who has pledged to improve ties with the West, held a historic 15-minute telephone conversation with US President Barack Obama last month, the first direct contact between leaders of the two countries in more than three decades.