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Transmission

Chavez Hits False Note Greeting Ahmadinejad

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November 26, 2009

Iran's President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has been a frequent visitor to Venezuela, getting there four times in four years in office to see his close Latin American ally, President Hugo Chavez.

Which makes the Venezuelans' faux pas on Ahmadinejad's arrival there on November 24 even more surprising.

Ahmadinejad was greeted with the wrong national anthem.

The anthem played was Iran's Imperial National Anthem -- used in the days of the Shah and subsequently discarded under Iran's Islamic Republic.

Just to ensure it wasn't a web deception, we watched it on Iranian state television.

-- Michael Hirshman and Hossein Aryan

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Comments

by: Hamik C Gregory from: Reno, NV USA

November 27, 2009 16:15

Millions of educated but unemployed Iranian men and women who aimlessly and purposelessly walk in the Iranian streets exist in parallel with Venezuelan poverty stricken slums. Both leaders manage governments that squander billions of dollars in oil revenues and emphasize anti Western ideologies. The more they preach, the poorer their people become. Obviously, they have learned nothing from the bankrupt Bolshevik Revolution of decade ago and the collapse of the pauperized former Soviet Empire! Even continuous modern-day poverty in Cuba fails to teach these ideologically obsessed leaders a lesson!

by: Irani from: Iran

November 28, 2009 09:33

To Radio Free.. whatever.. The meeting was much more important and with substance than what chose to print. We know who funds you and what agenda you are peddling. We don't expect truth from media whores like you.

by: monireh C from: new York city

December 01, 2009 21:56

That Anthem was also played on when Khomaine stepped out of Air France in Iran on 1979!

About This Blog

Written by RFE/RL editors and correspondents, Transmission serves up news, comment, and the odd silly dictator story. While our primary concern is with foreign policy, Transmission is also a place for the ideas -- some serious, some irreverent -- that bubble up from our bureaus. The name recognizes RFE/RL's role as a surrogate broadcaster to places without free media. You can write us at transmission+rferl.org