Iran orders removal of anti-U.S. billboards in country

Iran has ordered supporters of hard-line conservative policies to remove anti-American billboards just days after they went up.

The move has sparked a fresh round of debate over relations between Tehran and Washington.

Since the relatively moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani took office as president in August, he and his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, have made several unprecedented gestures toward the United States.

Rouhani also had a telephonic conversation with President Barack Obama, which was the first direct contact between presidents of the two countries since Iran's 1979 revolution ousted the shah.

According to the Washington Post, such diplomatic outreach and the new government's apparent attempts to quiet anti-U.S. rhetoric have confused and angered supporters of hard-line conservatives who call the United States the "Great Satan".

The billboards, carrying the English-language slogan 'The U.S. Government Styles Honesty', depict a goateed Iranian official sitting across a U.S. counterpart who, under the table, conceals symbols of perceived American aggression, the report said.

In one, the American is accompanied by an attack dog; in another, he is wearing military fatigues under the table and a coat and tie above it, it added.

According to the report, there is nothing particularly unusual about the messages, considering that U.S. flags and effigies of American presidents have been regularly burned in the streets of Tehran during the past 34 years.

But with the anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran just a week away, the decision by Tehran's municipal government to order the removal of the billboards is shocking to some vocal supporters.

Hossein Shariatmadari, editor in chief of the hard-line daily Kayhan, published an editorial Sunday expressing disbelief at the decision to remove the billboards.

The people behind the billboard project, however, are gratified that their work is causing such a stir.

Ehsan Mohammad Hassani, manager of the Owj Institute, a nongovernmental cultural organization that sponsored the billboards, welcomed the attention.