On as well Twitter like Facebook and Instagram, the US now uses an Iranian flag with only the colors green, red and white. The emblem and the Islamic text in the center of Iran’s official flag are missing.
Both the emblem and the text were introduced after the Islamist revolution in 1979, and are associated with the hard-line regime, which now has the world’s eyes on it after this autumn’s violent response to peaceful street protests.
The stripped-down version that the US is now publishing has been used by the opposition to distance itself from the regime. Before the revolution, Iran had a similar flag with an emblem consisting of a lion and a sun in the middle, and it too is now used in contexts critical of the regime.
The US move is hotly debated online, with many interpreting it as support for the protests in Iran. But neither the United States nor Iran wanted to comment on the change of flag in the American team’s media channels.