New FM Denies Announcing Walid al-Muallem's 'Death'
Lebanon’s new foreign minister Nassif Hitti on Thursday denied announcing the “death” of Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem.
“He has not used the account carrying his name for the past three and a half years and he has not created any Twitter account recently,” a statement issued by his office said.
The office earlier announced that the account in question had been “hacked” and that efforts were underway to recover it. The account, @NassifHitti, was later deactivated.
The tweet had been reported as real news by some media outlets.
Several parody accounts impersonating a number of ministers have popped up since the formation of the new government on Tuesday night, most notably one claiming to be the new information minister – Manal Abdul Samad.
Syria’s information minister and deputy foreign minister meanwhile denied the death of Muallem, stressing that he is in good health.
Source: Naharnet
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