02.09, 03:09 Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters flooded a major highway in Bahrain for the first sanctioned opposition rally in months. They called on the government to release a prominent human rights activist and demanded greater freedom.
23.08, 16:18 An appellate court in Bahrain has acquitted human rights activist Nabeel Rajab of insulting Bahrainis by criticizing the prime minister via Twitter, but remains in jail on other charges, his lawyer said.
18.08, 12:40 An antigovernment rally in Bahrain on Friday resulted in the death of a 16-year-old boy, after the unarmed teenager was beaten by police, Human Rights Watch said. Police allege that the teenager attacked officers with a Molotov cocktail.
Arab world protests
31.08, 23:02 Iran has dismissed as “politically motivated” a recent IAEA report accusing it of ramping up uranium enrichment. The director of the University of Tehran's Institute for North American and European Studies told RT the report’s timing is no surprise.
Iran tension
30.08, 20:22 It’s no surprise that Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi delivered a speech calling the Syrian government an “oppressive regime,” journalist and broadcaster Neil Clark says.
Published: 03 September, 2012, 02:13
Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi ( AFP Photo / Pool)TAGS: Scandal, Middle East, Protest, Politics, Human rights, Opposition, Syria Bahrain has demanded an apology from Tehran after the mistranslation of a critical speech by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi by Iranian official translators, which replaced the word "Syria" with the word "Bahrain."
Morsi gave the speech on Thursday during at the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran.
It was an Egyptian head of state's first official visit to Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. It was also only Morsi's second official visit abroad as president since being elected this June.
“Our solidarity with the struggle of the Syrian people against an oppressive regime that has lost its legitimacy is an ethical duty, as it is a political and strategic necessity,” he said at the meeting. His speech also included a call for the Syrian opposition to unite.
However, during his speech, the translator for Iran, where Persian is spoken, substituted the word "Syria" for "Bahrain."
“This is a violation, fabrication and unacceptable media behavior that shows how Iranian media is interfering in Bahrain’s internal affairs,” the BNA, Bahrain’s government-run news agency, said on Saturday.
The speech was transmitted live with a Farsi (as Persian is called in Iran) translation on two Iranian channels, IRIB Channel One and IRINN, although the Bahraini statement didn’t mention which channel it said changed the words.
The head of Iran’s state media, Ezatollah Zarghami, admitted the mistake but insisted it was mistranslated on only one of the country's channels, IRIB Channel One.
He added that while President Morsi was addressing the summit, a technical error occurred that caused the translator to make the mistake.
Zarghami added that the Western media were quick to seize upon the error. “In a verbal mistake, the translator said 'Bahrain' instead of 'Syria,' and this became a pretext for Western media,” he said.
The scandal has become an embarrassment for Iran, which found itself in the international spotlight due to the summit, which brought representatives from 120 nations.
Iranian media activist Ameed Maqdam expressed astonishment at the error. Maqdam said he heard "Bahrain" mentioned three times in the simultaneous Persian translation broadcast on Channel One.
“For us who were listening on the radio, whenever Mursi said 'Syria' the Persian translator, who did not have the required integrity, translated it as 'Bahrain!!'” one listener complained online to the Asr-e Iran newspaper, as quoted by Reuters.
The incident is diplomatically sensitive because Iran, a Shi’ite Muslim power, is an ally of the Alawite religious minority that rules Syria. Alawite Islam is an offshoot of Shia Islam.
Iran has previously expressed sympathy with the democratic protest movement in Bahrain against the ruling al-Khalifa family, which put down a democratic rebellion in 2011 by the majority Shiite population.
Today: 01:49 Israel is once again stirring the pot with harsh rhetoric regarding Iran, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing world powers of failing to draw a “clear red line” to curb Tehran's alleged nuclear weapons program.
Israel vs Iran Iran tension
Today: 06:20 The Chinese Defense Minister has arrived in Mumbai, marking the highest-level defense visit to India in eight years. Relations between the two neighbors have traditionally been tense, but have seen a thaw in recent months.
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