2nd July, 2023
The Islamic Republic of Iran has put on hold the posting of a new Ambassador to Sweden over the desecration and burning of a Quran.
According to Sputnik, Majid Nili Ahmadabadi, the head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s Western Europe Department, had earlier summoned the charge d’affaires of the Swedish Embassy in Tehran to condemn the desecration and burning of a Quran in Stockholm.
On June 28, the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, a protest in which a Quran was burned took place outside Stockholm’s main mosque.
The demonstration was reportedly approved by the Swedish authorities.
Therefore, Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, on Sunday announced that Tehran would temporarily refrain from sending a new ambassador to Sweden in protest.
The foreign minister acknowledged on Twitter that the new ambassador was ready to be sent to his new role, but failed to clarify how long the procedure might be paused.
Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the police decision was “legal but inappropriate.”
Muslim countries such as Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia strongly condemned the latest Quran burning in Sweden.
A Telegram statement from Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs deplored the “silence and passive behaviour of the Swedish government as encouraging the violators of one of the fundamental and obvious principles of human rights, i.e. the principle of respect for religious and mountainous values,”.
This is not the first protest in Sweden involving a Quran burning, with such demonstrations having escalated tensions between Stockholm and Ankara, whose backing Stockholm needs to become a NATO member, reports Sputnik.