An Israeli embassy on Wednesday derided Iran's new president as an expert salesman who is bullish on nuclear proliferation in a bitingly sarcastic tweet, reports the AFP news agency.
The tweet came from the Israeli Embassy in Washington and poses the question of what President Hassan Rouhani's LinkedIn page might look like.
The tweet came out just as the United States and Iran are showing signs of a thaw in long-antagonistic relations and a day after their presidents made hopeful sounding remarks at the UN General Assembly in New York on the Iranian nuclear standoff.
The spoof of the Iranian president's LinkedIn page has him describing himself thusly: "I'm a career politician, expert public relations professional, leading international salesman and longtime advocate of nuclear proliferation."
Western countries suspect that Iran's nuclear program is designed to build a nuclear weapon, but Iran says it is for civilian purposes.
The mock LinkedIn page goes on to quote Rouhani as saying of himself: "Since my election as President of Iran in 2013, I developed and have executed an unprecedented PR campaign for the government of Iran."
"Through a series of statements, tweets, op-eds and smiles I have rebranded the human rights-suppressing, Ayatollah-led regime as moderate and a source of hope among the international community. In my role, I represent and am the public facing figure of Supreme leader Ayatollah Khameini," it added, according to AFP.
Further up on the page, in a section on Rouhani's "skills and expertise," these are said to include international sales, deceptive trade practices, nuclear weapons, military justice, illusion, weapons of mass destruction and ballistics.
Since being elected in June, Rouhani has indicated he would like a less confrontational approach to nuclear talks with six world powers than his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but also stressed soon after his election that Tehran would not consider halting the country’s uranium enrichment activities entirely.
He continued this rhetoric on Tuesday, when he told the United Nations General Assembly that “Iran poses absolutely no threat to the world or the region,” while adding that his country is willing to hold time-bound talks on its nuclear program.
In response to Rouhani’s statements, United States President Barack Obama has reached out to Iran, first by exchanging letters with Rouhani and subsequently in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
In that speech, Obama reiterated American opposition to the idea of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, he expressed support for an Iranian civilian nuclear program.
Israel has warned that Rouhani is a wolf in sheep’s clothing who will continue to develop Iran’s nuclear program while saying in public that he seeks a diplomatic solution.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)