Saudis Slam New York Times for Publishing Iran FM’s Op-Ed

Writing in Arabic on his Twitter page, Faisal bin Farhan, a “senior advisor” at Saudi Arabia’s Washington Embassy, said the Saudi envoy had recently asked to write a piece for The New York Times but received what was a polite but unmistakably chilling response.

“The response was an apology on the grounds that the article by Thomas Friedman was very positive, so there is no need for an official Saudi voice on their pages,” Faisal bin Farhan wrote, referring to a feature article by Friedman, a foreign affairs columnist at the daily, in which he portrayed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a curiously positive light.

“Their exact words were: ‘Wasn’t the Friedman piece’ enough for you?'” continued Faisal bin Farhan, who couldn’t conceal his emotions: “Of course a week later, an article was published by Javad Zarif.”