Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister woke up Monday morning and after his mandatory 3 hours of prayer a question suddenly occurred to him: Do Floggings Hurt Country’s Image Abroad? (I don’t know. You think?)

“Not all bodies in Iran share (Khatami’s) policy of detente and building up trust (with the West). Some are creating a condition to make the world disillusioned with our model of Islamic democracy. The behavior of the judiciary and security forces largely affect our foreign relations and create problems for us,” he said, shortly before being dragged to the public square and flogged.