French town pulls garbage advert depicting Khamenei after Tehran's outcry
A French mayor has cancelled an advertising campaign on sorting garbage which lampooned Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, citing safety concerns after Iran decried it as an insult.
A French mayor has cancelled an advertising campaign on sorting garbage which lampooned Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, citing safety concerns after Iran decried it as an insult.
The campaign on the back of municipal buses features Khamenei alongside North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin under the slogan "Don’t forget to sort your waste".
Far-right Mayor Robert Ménard of the southern French city of Béziers had spearheaded the initiative but announced the removal of the adverts on Thursday.
Describing the move as a precautionary measure, Ménard told AFP: "We take this very seriously. I don't want there to be the slightest problem, for example, for our bus drivers."
"We've run lots of campaigns, but they never achieve anything. Nobody even notices them. This one, at least, everyone noticed," he added.
Majid Nili, an aide to Iran’s Foreign Minister, announced Thursday that the Iranian Embassy in Paris has lodged an official complaint against the campaign, which he described as an insult to the Islamic Republic, hate speech and disrespect for Iran's cultural values.
Nili further said that the embassy had demanded what he called an appropriate response from the French government, calling for measures to prevent provocations in the future.
The campaign was launched on January 4, 2025, as part of an initiative to encourage residents to participate in waste sorting.
Since then, images of the municipal buses have been shared widely on social media platforms, including the city’s official Facebook page with the caption: "To start the year off right, think about sorting your rubbish."
French media earlier quoted Ménard saying, "These are scoundrels, non-recyclable waste. One wages an unjust war on his neighbors and sends his army to die, another imprisons his population and the last treats women worse than doormats while eliminating his opponents."
In his New Year’s statement, he also expressed solidarity with the women of Iran, saying: "I am also thinking of those women who, in Iran and elsewhere, refuse to be confined behind a veil, a prison of fabric."
Hossein Taeb, an advisor to the IRGC Commander-in-Chief, made the comments on Wednesday during a speech discussing Iran's so-called operation True Promise 3, an attack promised by Iranian officials on Israel.
"The operations of True Promise (1), 2, and 3 should be executed when they are strategically effective," Taeb said in comments carried by state media, referring to earlier Iranian attacks against its regional arch-enemy.
Operation True Promise 1 was Iran's first ever direct military strike against Israel, conducted on April 13, 2024.
In retaliation for an Israeli air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus two weeks earlier, which resulted in the deaths of two Iranian generals, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched a coordinated assault involving over 300 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones targeting Israeli military installations.
Operation True Promise 2, conducted on October 1, 2024 saw the IRGC launched approximately 200 ballistic missiles targeting Israeli military facilities in response to the assassinations of high-ranking Iran-aligned militant leaders.
"Speeding up a war does not mean achieving success," Taeb added. "Strategic weapons must be used at the right time and in a timely manner."
The unprecedented attacks marked a significant escalation in Iran-Israel tensions, transitioning from proxy engagements to direct confrontation. But Israel's advanced air defense systems, with support from US and allied forces, intercepted the majority of the incoming projectiles, minimizing casualties and damage.
Taeb’s remarks follow months of speculation about why Iran has delayed another retaliation to Israel after it battered Tehran-backed armed groups in the region.
Two senior IRGC generals said earlier that Iran's loss of its ally in Syria and lack of sufficient funding meant the time was not right to hit Israel anew.
Aoun, who was backed by factions seeking to reduce Hezbollah's dominance, signals a shift away from Lebanon’s political dominance by Iran via the militia.
His election marks the end of a prolonged political vacuum and a decisive moment in Lebanon's complex political landscape, raising questions about the country's future alignment in a shattered Middle East.
Former chief of Lebanon's army, Aoun has distanced himself from Hezbollah. His election, after two rounds of voting, followed years of political paralysis exposing the deep divide between Lebanon's pro-Western factions and a pro-Hezbollah bloc.
In his first address to parliament, Aoun called for the Lebanese state to reclaim control over its military, signaling a possible challenge to Hezbollah.
His presidency, he added, would strive toward giving the state the exclusive right to carry arms, a statement likely aimed at Hezbollah and its vast array of weapons.
His words were met with the longest applause of the speech, though Hezbollah parliamentarians remained seated and silent, marking the national tension between Aoun’s vision and the group's interests.
In a diplomatic message, Iran's embassy in Beirut congratulated Lebanon on Aoun's election, expressing hope for stronger cooperation between the two nations.
“We congratulate brotherly Lebanon for the election of General Joseph Aoun,” the embassy said, emphasizing the importance of cooperation to serve mutual interests.
The statement did not address the status of Hezbollah's arms.