Admission to Deletion of Section on Iran’s Secret Negotiations from US State Department Press Conference Video

John Kirby, spokesman for the US State Department, has confirmed that in 2013, a State Department official intentionally deleted several minutes from a video of a press conference regarding confidential negotiations with Iran before it was released on YouTube and the department’s website.

At a press conference on December 2, 2013, James Rosen, a Fox News correspondent, asked Jen Psaki, the State Department spokesperson, about the denial of secret negotiations between Iran and America.

Jen Psaki responded by saying: “James, sometimes diplomacy requires privacy in order to move forward. This is a good example of that.”

The Fox News correspondent’s question related to the same negotiations that later took place formally between Iran and the P5+1 to address concerns about Iran’s nuclear program and resulted in the nuclear agreement known as the JCPOA in 2015.

However, that question and answer were deleted from the video that the State Department published on its website and on YouTube. This was despite the fact that this section existed in the official written version of the State Department and even in a backup video of that press conference that was kept in archives.

Fox News discovered this issue last month and requested an explanation from the State Department.

John Kirby, the current spokesman of the department, said on Wednesday that the deletion of the Iran-related section was done at the request of an official in the State Department, but said he was unable to identify the identity of this official.

Nevertheless, he described the action as unacceptable.

Mr. Kirby said: “The intentional deletion of part of a video is inconsistent with the State Department’s commitment to transparency and accountability to the public.”

He said his investigation shows that on the same day, December 2, 2013, someone from the department’s public relations section contacted a video editor and requested “the cutting of that section of the press conference.”

The video editor says he does not remember the name of the person who made the request by phone.

On February 6, 2013—approximately 10 months before the aforementioned press conference—Victoria Nuland, then State Department spokesperson, told James Rosen, Fox News correspondent, that no bilateral and direct talks—outside of large international gatherings—were taking place between American and Iranian officials.

On December 2 of the same year, James Rosen asked Ms. Psaki whether Ms. Nuland had told the truth.

This section of the conversation between James Rosen and Jen Psaki was the part that was deleted from the press conference video.

Jen Psaki, who is now the White House Communications Director, denied on Wednesday that she ordered the deletion of that conversation from the video.

She said: “During my time at the State Department, I had no knowledge of that editing or cutting of any topic from the press conference and I did not approve of it being done.”

John Kirby says he has ordered the complete video of that press conference to be reposted in all publishing outlets replacing the edited video. Additionally, he said new regulations will be written to prevent similar incidents.

Source: BBC