Reza Sajjadi is not just the Ambassador of Iran to Russia. He is also an active and popular blogger writing articles in Russian language.
Reza Sajjadi, Ambassador of Iran to Russia
His last blog post is dedicated to the situation in Syria.
Knowing the stance of Iran on Syrian matters, the content of this post is not surprising. More of interest is the opinion of Russian netizens reading the ambassador’s blog.
Below you will find the translation of Sajjadi’s post followed by the comments of Russian netizens.
I’ve been wondering for a long time why President Assad hadn’t yet disclosed the root cause of the Syrian crisis?
I know how many foreign agents there were among the arrested Syrian terrorists. And it is absolutely clear what countries are behind the crisis. Trying to help the Zionist regime of Israel and the United States, they are organizing the overthrow of independent Syria.
I think that President Assad wanted to give Saudi Arabia a chance to be good. But Saudi Arabia has not taken advantage of this generous opportunity, arrogantly thinking that she is close to success. Fortunately, in the battle near Damascus, about 2000 terrorists were captured, many of which appeared to be not Syrians. The testimonies of those who were arrested became the good evidence of foreign interference in the Syrian crisis.
For this reason the Syrian government made a wise move and sent an official letter to Mr. Ban Ki-moon with a complaint against Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.
Today the entire free world and all the noble people on Earth must unanimously oppose the despicable actions of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia against Syria. People should not think that their votes don’t count or will have no effect. We should no longer allow the U.S. and its lackeys in the region, under the pretext of democracy, attack and tear apart innocent people, like wolves in the wild forest.
Reactions of Russian readers
[Note: it's worth to note that Sajjadi doesn't use the function of comments' moderation and all comments immediately become visible in his blog. However, as the blog owner he uses his permissions to delete some comments]
fromnazareth (commenter is the Russian Orthodox priest from Nazareth): Supporting Syria, where Christians and Muslims live in peace! Shame on the Saudis!Поддерживаю Сирию, где христиане и мусульмане живут в мире! Позор саудитам!
orest_kuchejko: Diplomats should not speak in such way!Дипломат не должен так высказываться!
pavel_ak (replying top the above): Diplomats should not speak in the way as the “diplomats” from the USA, SA [ed: Saudi Arabia], EU and Turkey do.Дипломаты не должны высказываться так, как высказываются ‘дипломаты’ США, СА, ЕС, Турции.
mate_real: May the Lord help President Assad!!!Пусть Бог Президенту Асаду будет в помощь !!!
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Not sure how to respond, being in the US and not supporting the ‘as close to corrupt as you can get without actually being corrupt’ US government, I have no feelings towards the anti-american sentiment. The comments though, which is what the blog wanted to point out are interesting. It looks like a normal US reaction, government, and government officials everywhere will always anger citizens somewhere with their statements, especially when they are so harsh.
What can I say, Russia is supporting Syria perhaps because of the economic interests that they have and an old friend as well. But if you look at that most people wish to have democracy there, change is inevitable.
For me the surprising thing was the reaction of simple Russian citizens many of whom also seem to support the Syrian government.
Regular Russians don’t know much about Syria – so their opinions are formed by reports in newspapers and TV.
The recent survey showed that only 35% of Russians trust the news on TV. Still it seems that TV is a powerful media for official propaganda.
So presenting the situation in Syria as the civil war between Sunni radicals and Shi’ite Alawites & minorities that it really is, is Russian “official propaganda”; while presenting it as a heroic democratic insurrection against the Assad dictatorship funded by such friends of democracy like Saudi Arabia is the Western golden truth?
Actually, I don’t know what exactly is happening in Syria and ready to admit it.
What, however, caught my attention was the fact that ordinary Russians readily agree with the official propaganda aired on TV when it comes to international matters.
At the same time Russians are much more skeptical towards official propaganda on domestic matters.
***
And – yes – I think that what people hear on TV channels (not only Russian) is propaganda. It doesn’t mean that all reports are deliberate lies. It simply means that the primary goal of those reports is not to tell the truth but to mold the public opinion in desirable way.