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    The Envoy

    Iran’s nuclear envoy borrows handy nearby chair–of Israeli delegation

    Iran's envoy to UN atomic agency borrows the Israelis' chair. (Foreign Policy/Turtle Bay)In the high-stakes arena of international nuclear politics, Middle Eastern adversaries Iran and Israel rarely miss a chance to publicly declare their hostility. But sometimes, like everybody, their envoys apparently get distracted from the whole arch-foe, kabuki body language such demonstrations of formal hostility mandate.

    Witness that Iran's diplomatic delegation somehow managed to park itself at Israel's seating area at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency last week, as originally reported by Foreign Policy's Turtle Bay blogger Colum Lynch.

    In the photo provided to Lynch, Iran's envoy to the UN atomic watchdog agency, Dr. Ali Asghar Soltanieh, seems simply to be too absorbed by the diplomatic business at hand to notice the symbolic--if no doubt inadvertent--seat-swap with the Israeli delegation on the conference floor. (That's Soltanieh, bearded in the white shirt, sitting at the Israeli delegate's seat, flanked by two standing Iranian aides, conferring with his Cuban and Irish counterparts.)

    "It's hard to imagine how the top Iranian diplomat, after serving more than six years as Tehran's envoy to the atomic agency, wound up in the Israeli seat without an alarm bell going off in his head," Lynch mused. "You'd think there was a protocol office within the Iranian foreign mission responsible for avoiding such a diplomatic faux pas."

    Or perhaps the more likely explanation came via Foreign Policy editor David Kenner in a tweet: Sometimes you just really need a place to sit down.

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    250 comments

    • miles  •  7 mths ago
      again this is not a story
    • Jim I  •  7 mths ago
      Upon returning to Iran, Dr. Soltanieh was sentenced to 50 years of hard labor for having Zionist Cooties.
      • MR PECK 7 mths ago
        I think, better than most other explanations, that hits the nail squarely on the head.
        What fools these mortals be. LOL
      • Steven 7 mths ago
        Yup, can't imagine his family back home is sleeping comfortably either.
      • JERRY D 7 mths ago
        If I were him, I wouldn't go home.
    • box of rocks  •  7 mths ago
      Finally the truth about these meetings comes out, their playing musical chairs.
    • doglog18  •  7 mths ago
      Not a story, but hey at least yahoo has a picture....
      • JamesS 7 mths ago
        Sorry. You get one or the other, but not both.
    • Jack Random  •  7 mths ago
      calling attention to this will probly mean his death. they take hate very seriously in the muddled east.
      • NB 7 mths ago
        100 lashes, or maybe castration...
    • Michelle  •  7 mths ago
      lol. I wonder if they are also making fun of this in Iran?!
      • Jack 7 mths ago
        No, they are setting up the gallows in Iran.
      • Pyle Bopkas 7 mths ago
        They will say that Israel stole the seat and not the other way around.
      • Allen Frost 7 mths ago
        Michelle, they are giving that guy a medal for carrying out a calculated insult. That Iranian diplomat has been around too long to make such a huge mistake.
    • Matt  •  7 mths ago
      was no mistake. Its a statement that Iran has plans to take over Israel.
    • sammie  •  7 mths ago
      who's the bald bihtch?
      • Brent 7 mths ago
        Your mom after a chemo treatment.
    • StevenJ  •  7 mths ago
      silly as an issue
    • Joe  •  7 mths ago
      And this is news why?
    • Ted N  •  7 mths ago
      A great day for the world federation of musical chairs.
    • BRB  •  7 mths ago
      We don't need their oil, they don't grow any food we buy, textiles could come for the US south east again if we quit treading with cheating China. Hmmmm what is it that drives us to get so involved with oversea's or nieghboring countries that hate/cheat/steal from us. Why not just do business with good trade partners that we work well with like Canada, France, Great Britain, Mexico, etc... Not a dime to any of them suckers. "Just stop". Just like a bad supplier in business, cancel orders, then let them requalify through auditing, and testing, just like in business.
    • tony  •  7 mths ago
      he probably just wanted to fart on it.....
    • Otto Pilot  •  7 mths ago
      Funny, I thought this article was something newsworthy.
    • Emcardi  •  7 mths ago
      so what
    • Anthony  •  7 mths ago
      wasting time.....
    • DERF  •  7 mths ago
      this article was a waste of my time
    • Hi  •  7 mths ago
      The Israeli delegation arrived and departed in a Merkava tank.
    • Choice  •  7 mths ago
      Oh no. international terrorism...chair theft...THATS a biggie..Take up arms,all
    • Robert  •  7 mths ago
      wow and this is considered news
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