Iranian News Agency Picks Up Satirical Onion Article Stating Americans Would Rather Hang Out With Ahmadinejad Than Obama

A state-run Iranian news agency picked up a story from an American news outlet to show its citizens that "rural Whites" prefer Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over President Obama.

The only problem is, it was a satire piece from The Onion. The English version of the Fars News Agency posted a fake Gallup poll story from The Onion on its website Friday, CBS DC reports.

"According to the results of a Gallup poll released Monday, the overwhelming majority of rural white Americans said they would rather vote for Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than US President Barack Obama," the Iranian website states.

The Onion "reported" that a Gallup poll indicates that 77 percent of "rural Caucasian" voters would rather have a beer or go to a baseball game with Ahmadinejad than Obama.

The Fars News Agency even used some fake quotes from the satire piece:

"(Ahmadinejad) takes national defense seriously, and he’d never let some gay protesters tell him how to run his country like Obama does."

"According to the same Gallup poll, 60 percent of rural whites said they at least respected that Ahmadinejad doesn't try to hide the fact that he's Muslim."

It is unclear whether Tehran, who runs the Fars News Agency, was aware that the story was satirical or if they used the story as propaganda to rally the troops back home. Either one seems possible at this point.

On Friday, the Israeli Embassy to the United States mocked Iran for trying to pass The Onion article as legitimate. They posted the following message on their official Twitter account Friday:

Dear Iran (@khamenei_ir): @theonion is not a reliable source for US opinion. See Gallup: gallup.com/poll/116236/ir… twitter.com/IsraelinUSA/st…

— Embassy of Israel (@IsraelinUSA) September 28, 2012