Tehran condemns AP for distorting Iran flag

In an “immature” act of insolence, the Associated Press (AP) has circulated a doctored photograph depicting the Iranian interior minister, sitting next to a disfigured Iranian flag with inverted colors.

Iran's Interior Ministry lashed out at the news agency over the digitally-altered photo, which was taken during a recent meeting between Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik and his Iranian counterpart Mostafa Mohammad Najjar in Islamabad, calling it "seriously out of line."

"This move was unprofessional and unethical," read a statement published on the Interior Ministry's website on Wednesday.

"The American news agency clearly resorted to using graphics editing softwares, such as Photoshop, to distort the colors of the country's flag," the statement added.

Three equal horizontal stripes of green, white and red are shown upside-down.

According to the statement, there are a number of elements that prove the photograph is a fake, including the absence of a translator in the meeting and the existence of a different photograph of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

The photograph has been seen in the country as a deliberate act of desecration to insult the Iranian nation.