UPI's Claude Salhani commenting during Al-Alam's coverage of Bush speech

Tehran's Arabic satellite station Al-Alam provided live coverage of President Bush's state of the union speech. The broadcast included remote feeds with two guest analysts, Washington-based UPI International editor and political analyst Claude Salhani and Islamic Institute Chairman Khaled Saffuri, who also lives in Washington. The coverage was surprisingly straightforward, without too much political invective.

In his comments on the speech today Behrouz Souresrafil was supportive of Bush, but wished he would go further with his attacks on Iran. With reference to the war on terror he praised former US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's call for regime change in Iran. Souresrafil said the problems in the Middle East will never be solved until the current regime in Iran is eliminated; "You don't go to war with tolerance." He also said Israel is the anchor of stability in the Middle East.