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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran lodges protest with Bahrain over Khamenei cartoon
2005-07-04
TEHERAN - Iran said on Sunday it had lodged a formal diplomatic protest after a newspaper in Bahrain published a cartoon deemed insulting to the Islamic republic’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi also warned countries in the region not to offend Iran’s ruling Shia clergy, saying that “our capabilities are incomparable”.
Funny, the US says the same thing about you guys.
“As soon the caricature was printed in the paper we sent them a notice, we summoned the Bahraini ambassador in Tehran, met with the one of directors of the Bahraini foreign ministry and their information minister there,” Asefi said.

Late last month the al-Ayyam newspaper published a caricature showing Khamenei next to a graph representing the presidential election, which was won by hardliner Mahmood Ahmadinejad. The supreme leader’s long beard is growing on the graph in an upward zigzag -- in other words alleging he played a decisive role in the victory of the new ultra-conservative president.

Asefi said authorities in Sunni-ruled Bahrain had “accepted that this was a major mistake” and had also “summoned the newspaper managers to reprimand them.”
"Are you guys nuts? Stop prodding the big gorrilla with the stick!"
“The countries of the region should know that it is them that will lose by doing these sort of things,” he warned. “Our capabilities are incomparable with theirs. We always stress friendship and cooperation with other countries, and they have to be more careful.”
Posted by:Steve White

#4  LOL! Sounds vaguely Soviet....
Posted by: Shipman   2005-07-04 15:38  

#3  As long as we are making fun of Ayatollahs here is a joke:
There was this drunk in Iran, he kept getting caught by the religious police who made him assume the position and give 15 lashes on his back side. This was a problem because he couldn't keep off the sauce. The owner of a tattoo parlor told him he had the answer. He would tattoo the portrait of Khomeini on one butt cheek and the portrait of Khamenei on the other. Since defaceing an official portrait of either was a capital crime the problem was solved!
The next day a religious policeman finds him drunk and demands he drop his pants. The policeman starts to "this cannot be, what is the meaning of this?" Then he really starts flogging away, the drunk yells"Isn't defaceing an official portrait a capital offense?"
The angry officer says,"Yes but this CANNOT be an official portait since it portrays AN ENOURMOUS GAP between our glorious leaders!"
Posted by: bruce   2005-07-04 13:31  

#2  The mullahs can dish it out, but they can't take it? That's because everything is an absolute - small minds don't have room for two possibilities©.
Posted by: Bobby   2005-07-04 12:08  

#1  Sounds like a threat. The question is, do they care to follow through?

(Reminder: Bahrain is the home of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2005-07-04 01:14  

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