State Department Tweets Congratulating Oscar-Winning Iranian Director, Then Deletes It

The official Persian-language Twitter account of the U.S. State Department tweeted and then deleted a congratulatory message to Asghar Farhadi and the Iranian people on The Salesman‘s best foreign-language film at the Oscars last night, according to a report from Reuters. Screen shots have also appeared on the Internet.

Official Persian language account of US secretary of state congratulated Iranian director Farhadi for his Oscar then deleted it @USAdarFarsi pic.twitter.com/sIWdXgwDp7

— ERSHAD ALIJANI (@ErshadAlijani) February 27, 2017

Farhadi, of course, was not at last night’s Oscars. He boycotted the ceremony, and, via a message delivered by Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-American engineer and former NASA scientist, bashed President Donald Trump‘s proposed travel ban from seven Muslim-majority countries, calling it inhumane.

A State Department spokeswoman told Reuters, “A congratulatory tweet was posted… We later removed the post to avoid any misperception that the USG (U.S. government) endorsed the comments made in the acceptance speech.”

[featured image via screen grab]

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