[RFE/RL] Hard-liners in Iran have launched a viral-video offensive likening Tehran's counterparts in nuclear negotiations to wolves and dredging up bitter memories from U.S.-Iranian history.The song is titled Hotel Coburg, after the venue of the latest round of negotiations for a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers. The lyrics suggest that Iran's negotiating partners -- mainly the United States, whose officials past and present are repeatedly shown alongside Israeli officials -- cannot be trusted.
The clip was released by the Basij House of Music after Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei recently suggested that "poets cannot be impartial in the battle between truth and evil. If poets and artists take an impartial position, they have wasted God's gift to them."
The song describes the negotiations as a chess game in which Iran is negotiating under "the shadow of threats."
It also reminds listeners some of dark historical encounters between Iran and the US, including the 1953 overthrow of Mossadegh, known in Iran as the "28 Mordad Coup", and the 1988 downing of an Iranian civilian passenger airliner. The song also echoes the allegation that UN arms inspectors are US spies. And it blames the US for the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists in 2012.