Twitter Diplomacy? New Iranian Officials Use Twitter To Make Surprising Moves To Cool Tensions Over Israel And Nukes

from the kind-of-amazing-when-you-think-about-it dept

Here's a fairly incredible story. The Iranian government is quite well known for stifling dissent and trying to limit the internet. However, we noted recently that the new President of Iran had made some surprisingly progressive statements about ending internet censorship and filtering, and supporting human rights. Obviously, it's easy to say things, while actually doing things is quite different. Even so, it's still surprising to see two recent tweets out of the Iranian government that suggest that perhaps they're really looking to ease certain tensions and move towards more peaceful relationships. The Back Channel blog has the details of the two key tweets, starting with surprising tweets from both the new President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wishing Jews a Happy Rosh Hashanah.

As the sun is about to set here in #Tehran I wish all Jews, especially Iranian Jews, a blessed Rosh Hashanah. pic.twitter.com/tmaf84x7UR

— Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) September 4, 2013

Happy Rosh Hashanah

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) September 5, 2013

As you probably know, Iran doesn't exactly have the best reputation with Jews, and its former President regularly threatened to go to war with Israel. Knowing a few Persian Jews who fled that country years ago, even any suggestion of a conciliation towards Jews is a stunning point. And, it went even further. Nancy Pelosi's daughter, Christine Pelosi, responded to Zarif's tweet, stating that it would be better if Iran stopped denying the Holocaust:

Thanks. The New Year would be even sweeter if you would end Iran's Holocaust denial, sir. “@JZarif: Happy Rosh Hashanah”

— sfpelosi (@sfpelosi) September 5, 2013

Amazingly, she got back a response, in which Zarif said that Iran does not deny the Holocaust, and that "the man who is perceived to be denying it is gone now," obviously referring to Ahmadinejad.

@sfpelosi Iran never denied it. The man who was perceived to be denying it is now gone. Happy New Year.

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) September 5, 2013

Zarif later confirmed to reporters that it was really him who was tweeting those messages and also that he recognized he was tweeting with Nancy Pelosi's daughter.

The other interesting tweet came from President Rouhani, noting a change in who controlled Iran's nuclear efforts, and also signalling a greater willingness to have a "constructive interaction" with the world on this:

Foreign Ministry will be in charge of Iran's #Nuclear Negotiations.Ready for constructive interaction with the world http://t.co/sCrQ0Qhh5K

— Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) September 5, 2013

This, also, is a pretty big deal, and while I'm sure many will (rightfully) view the whole thing with skepticism, one can also be hopeful that this is a sign of a real shift in policies from Iran.

But perhaps even more interesting is the fact that this is all happening over Twitter. The fact that Zarif and Pelosi could have an exchange like that is fairly astounding once you think about it. That sort of thing was basically impossible just a few years ago. The ability to do diplomacy via social media is quite amazing. It really was just a year and a half ago that we were somewhat amazed (and also hopeful) that various citizens of both Israel and Iran were reaching out to each other via Facebook, to try to build direct connections and a hopeful sense of peace between citizens, but we wondered if the same sort of thing would ever extend up to the politicians and those in power. While we're not there yet, it's at least nice to see some sort of encouraging sign.

The ability to actually communicate and relate to one another as human beings rather than as caricatures is incredibly powerful. It can (and will) be abused at times, but we can still hope for good results and be encouraged when we see potential signs of it happening.

Filed Under: christine pelosi, hassan rouhani, holocaust, iran, israel, javad zarif, nancy pelosi, rosh hashana, social media
Companies: twitter