Twitter suspends Khamenei accounts

By Yaghoub Fazeli

DUBAI -- Twitter temporarily suspended early Tuesday several Twitter accounts belonging to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei’s English, Arabic, Persian and Urdu Twitter accounts were temporarily suspended.

His English and Persian accounts were later restored, while the other accounts remained suspended.

The majority of social media networks, including Facebook and Twitter, are banned in Iran.

Twitter has been banned in Iran since 2009, following protests in the aftermath of Iran’s 2009 presidential election.

Despite the ban, many high-ranking Iranian officials have accounts and are active on Twitter.

Some of these officials include President Hassan Rohani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Iranian activists have on numerous occasions called on Twitter to ban the accounts of regime officials as long as ordinary Iranians are denied access to the social media platform. -- Al Arabiya English