Today I have been reading the BBC News report on the return of Iranian diplomats to their home country after an attack on the British Embassy earlier this week.
Interestingly I also read the lead Irish broadcaster RTE's report on the situation and noticed some differences.
First of all RTE states that Frances, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands all withdrew their diplomats from Iran in protest. BBC also states this but only towards the end of the report, making more of a point that France was withdrawing due to fears that they would be hit next.
BBC also makes a very big point of trying to explain why the attack took place, claiming it to be because of financial sanctions it recently imposed on Iran. The really interesting part is it then makes a very big point about how the USA and Canada did the same sanctions at the same time.
Iran seems to have a particular hate for England with the ambassadors returning to "Death to England" chants. Is Britain trying to shift some of the pressure onto the USA and Canada by doing a typical school yard "They did it too..." kind of response? Having said that it certainly would not fair for Britain to be singled out when other countries have been involved too.
RTE does not even mention America and Canada, and also does not mention that France feels like it is the next target.
Is the BBC being biased and trying to rally support for Britain and RTE just stating the facts? Or alternatively does BBC simply have more facts than RTE and therefore and report more.
I'll admit I did not realise how hated we are in Iran and I find this worrying, certainly if Iran is developing Nuclear weapons as seems to be feared. A lot of people blame America for other countries hating us, saying that because we are so quick to follow them into war we get ourselves a reputation. Well it appears in this case we are looking at the opposite, if America gets involved in our fight then Iran will hate them as well as us.
I think personally that expelling the Iranian diplomats was not really a good idea, the whole point if diplomacy is to solve issues between countries, if you expel diplomats when something like this happens then you are breaking a channel of communication that potentially prevent worse things to come.
I find it interesting that several EU countries withdrew their diplomats out of protest; will this just not serve to isolate Iran more, making them more likely to lash out at us?
Many people will argue that the act of attacking our embassy cannot go unpunished. Well as much as I agree you have to be careful as to what you do otherwise you can make an already unstable situation worse.
I should point out at this point that the Government of Iran denies any involvement in the attack, stating it was radical youths who were in the middle of a student protest and developed a very angry mob mentality. Naturally our Government does not believe this and thinks that the Iranian Government had some involvement.
Either way I personally will be monitoring the news on this, curious to see when diplomats from all countries involve start to return.
Apologises for this not being my scheduled post, I will do my post on Lying and Deceit tomorrow instead.
DFTBA
Interestingly I also read the lead Irish broadcaster RTE's report on the situation and noticed some differences.
First of all RTE states that Frances, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands all withdrew their diplomats from Iran in protest. BBC also states this but only towards the end of the report, making more of a point that France was withdrawing due to fears that they would be hit next.
BBC also makes a very big point of trying to explain why the attack took place, claiming it to be because of financial sanctions it recently imposed on Iran. The really interesting part is it then makes a very big point about how the USA and Canada did the same sanctions at the same time.
Iran seems to have a particular hate for England with the ambassadors returning to "Death to England" chants. Is Britain trying to shift some of the pressure onto the USA and Canada by doing a typical school yard "They did it too..." kind of response? Having said that it certainly would not fair for Britain to be singled out when other countries have been involved too.
RTE does not even mention America and Canada, and also does not mention that France feels like it is the next target.
Is the BBC being biased and trying to rally support for Britain and RTE just stating the facts? Or alternatively does BBC simply have more facts than RTE and therefore and report more.
I'll admit I did not realise how hated we are in Iran and I find this worrying, certainly if Iran is developing Nuclear weapons as seems to be feared. A lot of people blame America for other countries hating us, saying that because we are so quick to follow them into war we get ourselves a reputation. Well it appears in this case we are looking at the opposite, if America gets involved in our fight then Iran will hate them as well as us.
I think personally that expelling the Iranian diplomats was not really a good idea, the whole point if diplomacy is to solve issues between countries, if you expel diplomats when something like this happens then you are breaking a channel of communication that potentially prevent worse things to come.
I find it interesting that several EU countries withdrew their diplomats out of protest; will this just not serve to isolate Iran more, making them more likely to lash out at us?
Many people will argue that the act of attacking our embassy cannot go unpunished. Well as much as I agree you have to be careful as to what you do otherwise you can make an already unstable situation worse.
I should point out at this point that the Government of Iran denies any involvement in the attack, stating it was radical youths who were in the middle of a student protest and developed a very angry mob mentality. Naturally our Government does not believe this and thinks that the Iranian Government had some involvement.
Either way I personally will be monitoring the news on this, curious to see when diplomats from all countries involve start to return.
Apologises for this not being my scheduled post, I will do my post on Lying and Deceit tomorrow instead.
DFTBA
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