State Department tweets then deletes congratulations to Oscar-winning Iranian director

The U.S. State Department tweeted then deleted a message congratulating an Iranian director who used his Oscars acceptance speech to slam President Trump.

The State Department's Persian-language Twitter account, @USAdarFarsi, congratulated Asghar Farhadi, who won the Academy Award for best foreign-language film for "The Salesman."

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A State Department spokeswoman later told Reuters: "A congratulatory tweet was posted. We later removed the post to avoid any misperception that the USG (U.S. government) endorsed the comments made in the acceptance speech."

Farhadi boycotted the Awards ceremony in protest against Trump's executive order, which prohibited entry to the U.S. by Iranians and citizens of six other Muslim-majority countries.

The Iranian director chose two Iranian-Americans to represent him at the ceremony -- Anousheh Ansari, a female engineer, and Firouz Naderi, a former Nasa scientist.

"I’m sorry I’m not with you tonight. My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S.,” Farhadi said in the statement.

"Dividing the world into the 'us' and 'our enemies' categories creates fears. A deceitful justification for aggression and war. These wars prevent democracy and human rights in countries, which have themselves been victims of aggression.”

It is not the first time that the State Department's Farsi account tweeted about Farhadi.

In January, when "The Salesman" was nominated for the Awards, the Twitter account tweeted best wishes to the director:

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