The Arabist

The Arabist

By Issandr El Amrani and friends.

Iranian anti-Sadat film

Some Iranians have been making nasty remarks lately, but this goes too far:

TEHRAN (AFP) - An extremist Iranian Islamist group announced it was working on a film about the 1981 assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat entitled "34 Bullets for the Pharoah".

The documentary, produced by the "Committee for the Glorification of Martyrs for the World Islamic Movement", is certain to further upset Cairo -- with whom Tehran cut diplomatic ties after Sadat signed the 1979 Camp David peace accord with Israel.

"The documentary will feature raw images of the assassination of Sadat, the trial of the martyr Khaled Islamboli and his companions ... and their motivation for executing the signatory of the first peace treaty between an Arab country and Israel," the group promised in a statement faxed to AFP.

It will "soon be available on CD-ROM", the group said.
Another blow to better Egyptian-Iranian relations (along with that street in Tehran they named after Khaled Al Islambuli)... But seriously, why is AFP treating a film produced by an apparently marginal group as diplomatic incident?