BREAKING NEWS

Bahrain criticizes Iran over Morsy speech mistranslation

DUBAI - Bahrain has criticized Iranian officials over a mistranslation of a speech by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy, which replaced the word "Syria" with "Bahrain" when he listed Arab states that had experienced revolts since last year.
The reference was diplomatically sensitive because Iran, a Shi'ite Muslim power and an ally of the Syrian government, has expressed sympathy with a Shi'ite-led democratic protest movement in Bahrain against the ruling Al Khalifa family. The Khalifas, backed by Washington, are Sunni Muslim.
Morsy, a Sunni Islamist who was elected president this year, gave the speech on Thursday during a meeting in Tehran of the Non-Aligned Movement, a group of 120 mostly developing nations.
He did not mention Bahrain, and the Bahraini government lodged a complaint with Iran's charge d'affaires on Saturday over the mistranslation on Iranian state television and radio.
"This is a violation, fabrication and unacceptable media behavior that shows how Iranian media is interfering in Bahrain's internal affairs," Bahrain's government-run news agency BNA said late on Saturday, adding that Bahrain had demanded an apology.