Tehran is denying that former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani accused Damascus of using poison gas in Syria's civil war.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said on September 2 that Rafsanjani's remarks had been "distorted."
The semiofficial Iranian Labor News Agency initially quoted Rafsanjani as saying on September 1 that the Syrian "people have been the target of a chemical attack by their own government and now they must also wait for an attack by foreigners."
But the news agency soon issued a new version, quoting Rafsanjani as saying instead that "on the one hand the people of Syria are the target of a chemical attack, and now they must wait for an attack by foreigners."
Tehran officially maintains that rebels were responsible for the reported poison-gas attacks on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said on September 2 that Rafsanjani's remarks had been "distorted."
The semiofficial Iranian Labor News Agency initially quoted Rafsanjani as saying on September 1 that the Syrian "people have been the target of a chemical attack by their own government and now they must also wait for an attack by foreigners."
But the news agency soon issued a new version, quoting Rafsanjani as saying instead that "on the one hand the people of Syria are the target of a chemical attack, and now they must wait for an attack by foreigners."
Tehran officially maintains that rebels were responsible for the reported poison-gas attacks on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21.