Israel must be wiped out

I was surprised to hear the headline in a news bulletin this morning. It went something like this:

Iran has launched two ballistic missiles bearing the inscription “Israel must be wiped out”

Which was odd, as the BBC usually plays down the existential threat Iran poses to Israel; rather, it's apt to portray it as merely something Israelis ‘claim.’

So, as I said, hearing a headline on the BBC (radio 4) phrased in such a way, i.e., emphasising that inscription, was quite a surprise.

Earlier, the Today programme featured an interview with an exiled Iranian named Shirin Ebadi. 

0830

The Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi has called for trade exchanges with Iran to be suspended until the human rights situation there improves. She says it is now worse than when she won the peace prize in 2003, and that Western powers should have pushed Iran on its human rights during the nuclear negotiations. Ms Ebadi has been speaking to Mishal Husain.

She was saying that Hassan Rouhani, the supposedly ‘pro-west’ Iranian President, whom the media portrays as a liberating influence and reformist is in fact no such thing.    Who knew?

(Well, we did.)