Iran Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani at a press conference, 12 June 2023 (Photo: Iranian Foreign Ministry)

The Associated Press — the international news agency that once said that “Iran has never threatened to attack Israel” — used Iran’s unveiling this week of a new attack drone to again whitewash the belligerent regime, which routinely calls for the genocide of Israelis.

About the unveiling of Iran’s war drone, Reuters rightly reported, “A video released on Tuesday by Iranian media displayed the drone among other military hardware, with text saying ‘prepare your shelters’ in both Hebrew and Persian.”

Iran today unveiled the latest entry in its Mohajer drones – Mohajer 10. It has a reported operational range of 2,000 km.

State media have released the video below. The text in Persian and Hebrew at about 9 second in reads: “Prepare your bunkers”. pic.twitter.com/ji5wyFgOqs

— Kian Sharifi (@KianSharifi) August 22, 2023

On its website, Haaretz expanded about that threat: “Published on Iran’s military industry day, the video’s text reflects simmering tensions between arch foes Iran and Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying on Monday that Tehran has funded and encouraged a series of recent deadly attacks against Israelis.”

Entitled “‘Prepare the Shelters’: With Hebrew Threat, Iran Unveils Armed Drone Which Can Hit Israel,” Haaretz‘s article is attributed to both AP and Reuters, with the information on Iran’s threat to attack Israeli communities clearly originating with Reuters.

The AP’s article, “Iran unveils armed drone resembling America’s MQ-9 Raeaper and says it could potentially reach Israel,” contains not one word about the “prepare your shelters” threat.

Instead, AP’s Nasser Karimi and Jon Gambrell report:

“Today we can firmly introduce Iran as an advanced and technological nation to the world,” [President Ebrahim] Raisi said in comments aired on state television.

He reiterated Iran’s stance about friendly relations with “all countries in the world,” adding that Iran’s armed forces will cut off any hand that will reaches [sic] out in an attempt to invade Iran, state TV reported.

And like that, the “prepare your shelters” threat is wiped from the record, a total erasure mirroring Iranian fantasies and threats about wiping Israel off the “global political map.”

The article only refers to Israel as Iran’s “archenemy” — and says Israel did not respond to a request for comment. But it leaves Iran’s genocidal threats out of the article.

Furthermore, the news service also seems to cast “Iran’s stance about friendly relations ‘with countries in the world’” at face value, failing to even qualify it. While the reporters do note Raisi’s statement that his country’s military “will cut off any hand that will reach out in an attempt to invade Iran,” that comment suggests defensive posturing, as opposed to the offensive threats of mass annihilation which have characterized official Iranian rhetoric.

Incidentally, here is the same President Raisi in a statement this past April (translation by MEMRI):

The enemies of the Islamic Revolution should know — and the Zionist regime in particularly has surely received this message — that the slightest action against the Islamic Republic of Iran will evoke a severe response from Iran’s armed forces.

They should know for certain that the smallest mistake against the security of Iran will result in the destruction of Tel Aviv and Haifa.

AP’s Karimi reported on Raisi’s comments at the time (“Iran renews threats against Israel during Army Day parade“). But the AP now fails to address Iran’s repeated threats to wipe Israel off the map, including this week’s “prepare your shelters” warning, informing readers only of “Iran’s stance about friendly relations with ‘all countries in the world.’”

Tamar Sternthal is the director of CAMERA’s Israel Office. A version of this article previously appeared on the CAMERA website.