Iran foreign minister says Facebook page hacked

The Facebook page of Iran's foreign minister was taken over briefly by unidentified hackers who protested against the crackdown on protesters after the disputed 2009 presidential election, media reported Saturday.

"My Facebook page was pirated by someone who changed the password, but the problem has since been sorted," Mohammad Javad Zarif was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

"If this happens again, I may have to stop having a Facebook page," he added.

The US-educated diplomat regularly updates his Facebook page (facebook.com/jzarif) where he posts in Farsi, and sometimes interacts with some of his more-than 184,000 fans.

Zarif also has a Twitter account in which he posts in English—despite no one inside the country being allowed legally to read his tweets.

Using the newly activated account @JZarif, the foreign minister caused a diplomatic shockwave on September 5 when he wished Jews a happy Rosh Hashanah (new year) and also stated that Iran did not deny the Holocaust.

Tehran blocks access to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and numerous other sites, including blogs and pornographic hubs, as it tries to stop Iranians from surfing content authorities seen as undermining the Islamic regime, or as being immoral.

© 2013 AFP