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Twitter suspends account linked to Khamenei's website, clarifies it's fake and not his

WION Web Team
New York, United States of AmericaUpdated: Jan 22, 2021, 11:43 PM IST
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Photograph:(Reuters)

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A Twitter spokeswoman said the @khamenei_site account was suspended for violating the company's platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts.

Twitter on Friday suspended what it said was a fake account linked to Iran's Supreme Leader, hours after it carried the image of a golfer resembling former US president Donald Trump apparently being targetted by a drone alongside a vow to avenge the killing of a top Iranian general in a US drone attack.

The post, on a Persian-language account linked to Khamenei's website, had carried the text of remarks by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in December, in which he said "Revenge is certain". That speech renewed a vow of vengeance ahead of the first anniversary of the killing of top military commander General Qassem Soleimani in the attack in Iraq.

Twitter Inc, however, clarified it had not suspended the account of Iran's Supreme Leader.

A Twitter spokeswoman said the @khamenei_site account was suspended for violating the company's platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts.

Asked if the @khamenei_site account was fake, she said it was.

“Revenge is inevitable. Soleimani’s killer and the man who gave the orders must face vengeance,” the post on the @khamenei_site Twitter account said late Thursday, warning there was no escape from payback for the US strike outside Baghdad airport which killed Iran’s foreign military operations chief General Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi lieutenant.

"Revenge can take place at any moment."

Khamenei tweet.jpg

However, Khamenei’s office runs several accounts and the others were still working.

The golfer image tweet was retweeted by Khamenei's main Persian-language account @Khamenei-fa, although it appeared to have been deleted later. The text and graphic of the tweet was also carried by Khamenei's official website (farsi.khamenei.ir) and widely quoted by Iranian media.

Khamenei's @Khamenei_fa account and his main Twitter account in English, which did not carry the golfer image tweet, were still operational.

Account suspended

Trump left office on Wednesday and flew straight to his Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida, without attending the inauguration of his successor President Joe Biden.

Iranian officials have pledged repeatedly that Soleimani will be avenged.

Earlier this month, on the first anniversary of his killing, judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi warned that not even Trump was "immune from justice" and that Soleimani's killers would "not be safe anywhere in the world".

Twitter had also suspended Trump’s account after the storming of the US Capitol citing the “risk of further incitement of violence.”