Once before the Iranian revolution, the then President of the United States Jimmy Carter visited Iran. He held a formal talk with the Shah, Pahlevi. As the Shah had an excellent command of English, no interpreters were needed for the occasion. However, the Shah spoke English with an accent which led to a misunderstanding on a major question, But interestingly enough, Carter, being a southerner, also had his accent and so the misundeerstanding turned into a double one. This is how it all happened. During their talk Carter mentioned a certain African organization and asked the Shah to give an overall appraisal of it. The Shah didn't have a very high opinion of the said organization as he found it beset with many internal problems, so he used the word "impotent" to describe it. The trouble was in pronouncing the word he put the stress on the second syllable and the word sounded like "important" to Carter. As it happened Carter himself thought the organization was a very important one and he felt most pleased that their opinions should "coincide", "Yes, I agree that the organization is indeed very important," he repeated to the Shah. Now in his southern accent, the word "important" souded very much like the word "impotent", and the Shah too felt most pleased that the President should agree with him. Now of all the people present on the occasion, only the then US ambassador to Iran, Mr. Sullivan, realised that it was a "double misunderstanding" as he knew the President's and the Shah's different opinions on that African organization and he was also familiar with both men's peculiar accents. Naturally he didn't see it fit for him to put them wise on the matter so he kept his mouth shut. He cast a glance around the room to see if anyone else was enjoying the room to see if anyone else was enjoying the joke with him and so the matter was allowed to pass.

Once before the Iranian revolution, the then President of the United States Jimmy Carter visited Iran. He held a formal talk with the Shah, Pahlevi. As the Shah had an excellent command of English, no interpreters were needed for the occasion. However, the Shah spoke English with an accent which led to a misunderstanding on a major question, But interestingly enough, Carter, being a southerner, also had his accent and so the misundeerstanding turned into a double one. This is how it all happened. During their talk Carter mentioned a certain African organization and asked the Shah to give an overall appraisal of it. The Shah didn't have a very high opinion of the said organization as he found it beset with many internal problems, so he used the word "impotent" to describe it. The trouble was in pronouncing the word he put the stress on the second syllable and the word sounded like "important" to Carter. As it happened Carter himself thought the organization was a very important one and he felt most pleased that their opinions should "coincide", "Yes, I agree that the organization is indeed very important," he repeated to the Shah. Now in his southern accent, the word "important" souded very much like the word "impotent", and the Shah too felt most pleased that the President should agree with him. Now of all the people present on the occasion, only the then US ambassador to Iran, Mr. Sullivan, realised that it was a "double misunderstanding" as he knew the President's and the Shah's different opinions on that African organization and he was also familiar with both men's peculiar accents. Naturally he didn't see it fit for him to put them wise on the matter so he kept his mouth shut. He cast a glance around the room to see if anyone else was enjoying the room to see if anyone else was enjoying the joke with him and so the matter was allowed to pass.