Iran’s Fars News Agency (FNA) and Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) have signed what the organizations term a “media cooperation program aimed at sharing the media services and expertise.” Both agencies are state-controlled, and disseminate what is widely considered to be disinformation on behalf of the regimes in Tehran and Damascus. FNA is starting an office in Damascus, and the agency’s director, Nezamoddin Moussavi, oversaw the opening. During his visit from Tehran, Moussavi also met “high-ranking Syrian officials, including the country’s parliament speaker and information minister.” According to Moussavi, the cooperation between FNA and SANA should bring “the reality of the events in Syria to the public opinion.” What the U.N. deems as the Syrian regime’s massacre of tens of thousands of civilians, was described quite differently this week in a Fars report. The Iranian outlet stated that merely “hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes.”

[Photo: Fars News Agency and Syrian Arab News Agency]