Ever since Axios posted a report early yesterday citing White House officials claiming that an agreement with Iran was close at hand, the U.S. corporate media has been flooded with stories claiming to describe the one-page memorandum of understanding that Axios first cited. There’s been no confirmation from Tehran that the American proposal the Foreign Ministry is reviewing is even the one-page memo that everyone is raving about.
The Iranian response so far has been one of ridicule. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohamed Qalibaf summed things up in two short sentences on X last night: “Operation Trust Me Bro failed. Now back to routine with Operation Fauxios.” This was Qalibaf’s reaction to the Axios report, a portmanteau of the words of “faux” and “Axios.” The author of the Axios report was Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, whom the Iranians consider a spy, because he is a veteran of Unit 8200, the IDF’s psywar unit.
According to Tasnim News, Qalibaf described the Axios report and others like it as misleading and part of recurring fake media narratives originating in the United States, and part of the Americans’ psychological operations after their heavy defeat in the military operation in the Strait of Hormuz.
