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02nd Mar 2022

Biden confuses Iran and Ukraine in awkward State of the Union blunder

Danny Jones

Biden confuses Iran and Ukraine

This was Biden’s first State of the Union speech

US President Joe Biden made a slip of up in his annual State of the Union speech to Congress on Wednesday as he appeared to confuse Iran with Ukraine.

Addressing the house, America and the world in his first speech of the kind, Biden moved on to the unavoidable subject of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and despite issuing a sentiment of support and solidarity, he accidentally referred to “the heart and souls of the Iranian people”.

As you can see, the intent was clearly to reassure that even though Vladimir Putin‘s forces continue to march on Kyiv and establish footholds in the region, that the world is behind Ukraine and their spirit will not be broken.

On Tuesday, Russia launched a missile strike on a Ukrainian TV tower in the nation’s capital; at least five people are said to have been killed.

While this was, of course, just an unfortunate slip of the tongue – something we’re all guilty of from time to time – among an otherwise important speech that touched on a myriad of pressing issues (no more so than Ukraine), the momentary mistake quickly went viral online.

Though he did not touch on the mobilisation of troops, Biden went on to insist that harsh economic sanctions will continue to be placed on Russian billionaires in tandem with Western allies and that Putin would “pay the price” for his “premeditated and unprovoked” war. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson insisted that UK troops won’t fight Russia in Ukraine under any circumstances,

You can watch his full speech, as well as an emotional embrace of the Ukrainian ambassador here:

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