While Western and Iranian diplomats are meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, to reach a deal about the Iran's controversial nuclear program, an English language website launched on Friday supporting the program.
The site, NuclearEnergy.ir, has a sleek design, colorful infographics, FAQ section and pages upon pages of information about nuclear power, the history of Iran's nuclear efforts and its legal aspects. While no definitive information proves that the Iranian government created the site, signs seem to point in that direction.
See also: Who's Tweeting for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani?
Twitter and Facebook accounts promoting the website mention several Western media journalists.
nuclearenergy.ir features most detailed outline of nuclear proposals on the Internet @bbclysedoucet @peterson__scott @AnnCurry @modavari
— nuclearenergy.ir (@nuclearenergyir) November 8, 2013
Agence France-Presse's Iran correspondent, Mohammad Davari, defined it as "one of the most sophisticated websites in Iran to date" in a tweet, which the NuclearEnergy.ir Twitter account promptly retweeted.
The creator of the site remains unclear, but Iranian President Hassan Rouhani retweeted some of the site's tweets. The domain search site Whois shows the site is registered to Hossein Hamidi Zare. Zare has not responded to Mashable's request for comment.
The site clearly tries to convey information about the nuclear program — it reads almost like a Wikipedia entry — but doesn't steer away from controversy. In fact, a whole section is titled "controversies."
"The West and Israel have stepped up their accusations that Tehran is covertly trying to develop atomic weapons," the site reads. "Amid these allegations, Iran has remained firm in its insistence that its nuclear activities are solely intended for peaceful purposes, and only have research, power generation and medical applications."
Another section, titled "In Memory," commemorates the deaths of four scientists linked to Iran's nuclear enrichment program and accuses Israel's intelligence agency Mossad and the CIA of killing them.
The site was down at certain times throughout Friday. On Twitter, the administrators explained that the server was experiencing issues due to an overwhelming number of visitors.
Rouhani's active presence on Twitter has broken many digital boundaries in Iran, such as his historic phone call with Obama, updates on his trips and policies and Twitter exchange with the social network's cofounder Jack Dorsey. If the Iranian government is, in fact, behind NuclearEnergy.ir, the site would be another step in this push toward opening up to Western countries.
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