Caricature of Aoun, allegedly promoted by Iran, critiqued by social media users

An unfavorable caricature of President Joseph Aoun, created by Yemeni cartoonist Kamal Sharaf, drew critiques by social media users in the past two days.

The caricature depicts shoes bearing the U.S. and Israeli flags kicking a ball featuring Aoun's image toward a goal displaying the Lebanese flag.

Some rumors also claimed that the Iranian news agency Tasnim reposted the caricature. While local Lebanese media outlets reported that Tasnim indeed shared the caricature, the post can not be found on their social media accounts at the moment. It remains unclear if the agency never reported it in the first place of if it was later deleted.

Following the rumors, several X accounts critiqued the cartoon and the Iranian agency: "While the expelled Iranian ambassador sits taking refuge in the embassy, with [Hezbollah's] blessing, Iran, through its media, is launching an offensive campaign against President Joseph Aoun," wrote an account called "Flam Freedom."

After the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Reza Sheibani, was declared persona non grata last month by Lebanese authorities following tensions between Iran and Lebanon, he nonetheless decided to stay in Beirut. In response to this decision, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri emphasized that the Foreign Ministry's decision to expel the Iranian ambassador "cannot pass" and was quoted by the Al-Joumhouria newspaper as saying that what was required was "the cancellation of the decision to expel the ambassador and nothing less than that."

"The Iranian Tasnim News Agency, with blatant audacity, published this caricature of Lebanese President Joseph Aoun," another account posted.

The war between Hezbollah and Israel between March 2 and April 16 increased tensions between the Lebanese authorities on one side and Iran and Hezbollah on the other side, as Beirut accused Tehran of intervening in its internal affairs, especially though its support for Hezbollah. Lebanon's direct negotiations with Israel earlier this month, for the first time since 1983, exacerbated the tensions even more.