Skip to main content

← Clipped Video vs. the Record

The Other Government's Clips: Iran's Two Statements, Larijani's Whole Sentence, Pezeshkian at the UN

Iran's government speaks to two audiences, and each side of the war clips the half it likes. A parent reading about Iran should read the whole sentence.

Two statements at the ceasefire​

When a ceasefire was reached in April 2026, one analyst wrote that "Iran issued two statements. One real, one for domestic propaganda": one accepting the ceasefire, one claiming "total victory." He says CNN ran the second as a headline, the President called it "fraud," and CNN said it came from Iranian officials (SightBringer, 8 April 2026).

Larijani's whole sentence (2025)​

In March 2025 Ali Larijani, then an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader, said: "We are not moving towards (nuclear) weapons, but if you do something wrong in the Iranian nuclear issue, you will force Iran to move towards that because it has to defend itself" (video posted by MenchOsint, 25 June 2025). Hawks clipped the second half as a threat; the first half matched U.S. intelligence that Iran was not building a weapon.

Pezeshkian at the UN (September 2026)​

One critic complained that television reported President Pezeshkian's call for "diplomacy & dialogue" but not his "until our final breath" (@ofiresearch, 24 September 2026, pointing to AP). Another writer noted he held up photographs of children killed at Minab, and that this "isn't the story dominating American cable news" (Matthew J. Reynolds). Different viewers, different halves.

"Media lies," five days before the bombs​

On 17 June 2025 an Iranian state account, as reposted, called reports of "America entering the war alongside Israel" "nothing but media lies," adding that "Washington is more cautious than to throw itself into a direct confrontation" (Mario Nawfal, 17 June 2025). Five days later U.S. bombers struck Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. Governments on every side say "nothing is happening" until it does.

Sources​

Status: Ali Larijani: reported killed in a March 2026 strike (Iranian state media and the Israeli military both announced his death). Masoud Pezeshkian: Alive.

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

Last updated on