Baroness Ashton’s plunging neckline covered up by Iranian media

LONDON - EU foreign minister Baroness Ashton’s plunging neckline was covered up by Iranian censors in newspapers that reported top-level talks over Iran’s nuclear programme.

While newspapers carried reports of the talk, held in Istanbul, which ended in impasse, the picture showing Baroness Ashton, 54, wearing a low-cut top was censored to give it a more modest, Islamic neckline.

She had followed advice not to touch her Iranian counterpart, Saeed Jalili, during a photocell, and had kept her arms firmly folded behind her back to avoid accidentally causing diplomatic offence to Muslims.

But she did not realise that her outfit would be thought too revealing for Iranian tastes.

“She was properly dressed. It was not low-cut. Many women in Iran are in a complete veil. These were international negotiations in a third country,” the Telegraph quoted a spokeswoman for Lady Ashton as saying. (ANI)