Stanford Professor Michael McFaul dunks on Khamenei… by puzzling over why Iran doesn't use Gregorian calendar

Ex-ambassador Michael McFaul has taken to Twitter to express astonishment over the start of the Iranian New Year, leading to speculation that he might not know that there are non-Gregorian calendars out there.

The former US envoy to Russia and current Stanford academic found it fitting to mock Iran's supreme leader for commenting on the start of the Iranian (or Persian) New Year, Nowruz. In his tweet, Ali Khamenei had congratulated his country for becoming more self-reliant in the face of US sanctions, but urged for further production boosts in 1399 to help the Islamic Republic recover from Washington's economic restrictions.

According to Iran's ancient solar calendar, the current year is 1399 – a fact which McFaul was either unaware of or found offensive to his exceptional American ways.

"Hmm? 1399 is the year of 'Surge in Production'? I am not satisfied with our federal leadership right now, but glad this guy is not running our country," McFaul quipped in response to Ali Khamenei's message.

McFaul then waited on the sidelines for Twitter users to applaud his massive dunk on a non-Western culture, but unfortunately commenters began to openly speculate whether the professor even knew that there are non-Gregorian calendars.

McFaul’s Twitter commentary has a colorful track record. In November he was duped by a well-known parody account claiming to be North Korea’s “official news feed.” A year earlier, he shared a fake video which called for the killing of Russian intelligence officers. He has pushed back against his critics by arguing that checking the validity of everything on the internet is too time-consuming, even though he has repeatedly attacked people for allegedly spreading misinformation.

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