US losing battle on minds after defeat on other fronts: Press TV deputy CEO

The United States has been defeated on several fronts and it is now losing the “battle on minds” as it desperately seizes the website domains affiliated with pro-resistance media, says Press TV’s deputy CEO.

"The US government has been defeated on several fronts... They have lost the battle on the ground, when they see that they’re losing the battle on the minds, their only resort is to shut down the dissent,” Ahamd Noroozi said in an edition of Press TV’s “Special Hour” program broadcast on Thursday night.

He made the remarks after delivering a statement by Press TV's editorial board published later on the network's website. 

Noroozi described the US move as “hostile”, stressing that it was “nothing unexpected from the United States” given its human rights record when dealing with protests in the country.

"We’ve seen images from the streets of the United States where people have been treated harshly, so no wonder they take such hostile moves toward those countries they believe they are their adversaries,” the Press TV official said.

“My guess is that the US government has been defeated on several fronts as I said from the statement; they have lost the battle on the ground, when they see that they’re losing the battle on the minds, their only resort is to shut down the dissent,” he added.

When asked why the US has accused Iranian and resistance front media of waging a disinformation campaign, Noroozi said, "Perhaps the United States is not as powerful as they would like the world to know."

"We are witnessing a dying empire, they’ve been defeated on several fronts, on the battle grounds, when they’ve been dealing with the axis of resistance, and because of the power of the message we have, we do not need to spend too much money to cover the issues," he added.

Referring to the the latest round of Israeli aggression against the Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip, he said, "The mobile phones of the people were true rockets, because they could expose the Zionist aggression on the ground. Depicting the situation in such ways is enough, people of the world will understand the truth, we do not need to cover anything, we just need to expose the reality, that’s why we can operate with minimum budget and get the maximum."

"This is exactly like the military budget we spend,... if you combine all the budgets of the axis of resistance together, they cannot reach a fraction of US military budget, but still they impose their own rule of engagements to the United States and have been successful in the past few years," the Press TV official said in conclusion.

Islamic Radio and Television Union denounces US seizure of Iranian websites

The Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU) said the move by the US administration relied on “unfounded” allegations.

Answering a question whether the covering of Israel’s May aggression on Gaza by al-Alam and Press TV, and their exposure of the truth of what was happening on the ground had contributed to the US decision, Ali Mohammad Salehi, the CEO of al-Alam TV channel, noted that the Iranian media outlets have previously faced such restrictions.

The TV channel’s pages on Twiter, Instagram and Youtube were closed simultaneously with Iran's retaliatory missile attack on Ain al-Assad air base in Iraq last year.

On 8 January 2020, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) targeted the American airbase in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, home to 2,000 US troops and scores of aircraft, with a barrage of missiles in retaliation for the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani five days earlier.

Nasser Akhdar, the deputy secretary general of Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU), echoed Noroozi’s remarks, saying the seizure comes amid the failure of the American projects in the Middle East.

Mazen al-Maliki, the CEO of Iraq-based al-Naeem TV, also told Press TV that the US move showed “the other face of American policies against the world” and proved “success” of the pro-resistance media outlets.

Seif al-Din, from Palestine Today TV, noted that the “absurd” US decision was targeting the resistance movement and is affected by the Israeli lobby.

He added that the move came as radio and televisions affiliated with the IRTVU succeeded in covering all news during Israeli aggression on Gaza.

Late on Tuesday, a message appeared on the websites of a series of Iranian and regional television networks that claimed their domains had been “seized by the United States Government,” accompanied by the seals of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Commerce Department.

The notice, which also appeared on the website of the English-language TV news network Press TV, cited US sanctions laws as the reason for the seizure.

The websites of Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam television news network, Yemen’s al-Masirah TV channel and Bahrain's Lualua television network were also among the targeted outlets.

Over the past years, the United States has for several times taken similar measures against Iranian media outlets.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk