‘Photoshopping’ to justify attacks is not a state’s behavior, says KRG foreign relations

“Several allegations and excuses have been made through photoshopping and other methods to hide the crime,” Dizayee

Kurdistan 24 2024/01/22 14:18

KRG Head of Foreign Relations Department Safeen Dizayee speaking to reporters in Erbil, Jan. 22, 2024. (Photo: Kurdistan24)

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The head of Kurdistan Region foreign relations on Monday announced the recent justification that Iran has used through editing photos of the late Peshraw Dizayee is not a state act.

Safeen Dizayee, the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Foreign Relations Department, spoke to reporters following a ceremony held to commemorate the deadly missile strikes on a private residence in Erbil on Jan. 15 at Empire World project, owned by the late Dizayee, a Kurdish construction businessman.

“Several allegations, lies, and excuses have been made through photoshopping and other methods to hide the crime,” Dizayee, a relative of the slain businessman, told reporters, saying the methods are not what is expected from a state.

The remarks came after an IRGC-affiliated media Tasnim on Sunday night published an edited photo of Dizayee with a Jewish rabbi, claiming the photo was taken at an event on Yom Kippur with the "Zionist" religious man.

The Iranian allegation is part of the official accusation Tehran leveled against Dizayee for working with Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. Both Erbil and Baghdad have categorically rejected the allegations, calling them “baseless”.

Social media users in the Kurdistan Region soon responded to the Iranian media’s altered image, debunking it by sharing the original photo. Some of the users even mocked the "bad editing".

The IRGC said the site was a “Mossad espionage center”. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) vehemently rejected the allegations, describing them as “baseless”.

Moreover, the Iraqi National Security Advisor Qassem Al-Araji and an Iraqi parliamentary investigation team similarly announced that the targeted place was a “family residence”, rejecting the allegations.

Human Rights Watch on Monday said Iran’s attack had only killed civilians in the house.

This is not the first time that Iran has targeted the private residences of Kurdish businessmen through ballistic missiles.

In early 2022, the country fired a salvo of missiles at the mansion of Sheikh Baz, an oil tycoon, alleging the site was a “Mossad spy center”, a claim that had been widely rejected by the KRG and Iraqi government. International condemnation of the attack followed later.