The change in the propaganda manner of the Iranian state media over the nuclear issue ‎that came about last week, has caught the attention of Iran watchers.‎

Just one week after hardline state-run daily Keyhan happily presented its readers with the ‎headline that China had stayed away from the meeting of 5+1 over Iran’s nuclear issue ‎‎(five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany) resulting in the ‎cancellation of the meeting altogether, because of IAEA’s Al Baradei efforts, subsequent ‎developments on the subject have now forced the daily to present a pessimistic lead story, ‎with a warning: “Threatening Iran is Playing with World Security.” Coinciding with this ‎change in tone, reports have emerged that Keyhan seems to have “accidentally” lost its ‎archived material for the last month, making it difficult to reference prior news items and ‎headlines.‎

On the same issue, speaking at a televised broadcast Ali Larijani, the former head of ‎Iran’s nuclear negotiations team who was sacked last month, called for unity among all ‎the political factions in the country. Surprisingly, he also spoke about the efforts of the ‎previous two administrations, Hashemi and Khatami, regarding the nuclear issue, and ‎finally called for a “national conciliation” among the political factions. And while ‎prominent ayatollah Janati repeated the already-out-of-date analysis that Al Baradei’s ‎IAEA report was a victory for Iran against the UN Security Council, at Friday’s ‎congregational prayers, Keyhan’s recent analysis and headlines and warnings indicate ‎how quickly that optimistic atmosphere evaporated into thin air. In fact, this change of ‎atmospherics was just as fast as China’s announcement within 24 hours after its initial ‎decision not to participate in the 5+1 meeting, that it was returning to the talks.‎