Tehran will temporarily refrain from sending a new ambassador to Sweden in protest over the burning of the Quran in Stockholm earlier this week.
This was announced by Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, on Sunday. The foreign minister acknowledged on Twitter that the new ambassador was ready to be sent to his new role, but failed to clarify for how long the procedure might be put on pause.
Screenshot of Twitter post by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
© Photo : Twitter
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 approved by the Swedish authorities. Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the police decision was "legal but inappropriate."
Muslim countries such as Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia have all strongly condemned the latest Quran burning in Sweden. Majid Nili Ahmadabadi, the head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry's Western Europe Department, summoned the charge d'affaires of the Swedish Embassy in Tehran, deploring the "silence and passive behavior 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," as per the ministry's Telegram statement.
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.