Anadolu staff
21 July 2023•Update: 22 July 2023
ISTANBUL
Iran on Friday said it would not accept Sweden's next ambassador to Tehran or send its own envoy to Stockholm after the most recent Quran burning in the Nordic country.
"Upon the conclusion of the Swedish envoy's tenure in Tehran, we will refrain from receiving his successor until there is a decisive action from the Swedish government against the offender who disrespected Quran," Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said in an interview with the country's public broadcaster.
In a previous announcement earlier this month, Amirabdollahian had said Iran would not be sending an ambassador of its own to Stockholm.
Earlier, Iran had summoned the Swedish Ambassador Matthias Lentz to protest the repeated desecration of Islam's holy book and to hold the Swedish government accountable for offending the feelings of Muslims around the world, according to Iran's official news agency IRNA.
Swedish Ambassador Matthias Lentz was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to express the country's "strong protest" over the "sacrilege" of the Quran, the news agency reported, citing a statement by ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani.
"We strongly condemn the repeated desecration of the Holy Quran and Islamic sanctities in Sweden, and we hold the Swedish government fully responsible for the consequences of inciting the feelings of Muslims around the world.
"Continuing to desecrate Islamic holy places and spreading hatred in this way is considered a perfect example of organized violence and a hostile action against the world's two billion Muslim population, God-believing people and followers of the heavenly religions," the spokesman said. The Swedish ambassador assured the ministry that he would inform his government "immediately of Tehran's protest," according to IRNA.
Early Thursday morning, a crowd of Iraqis stormed Sweden's embassy in Baghdad and set it ablaze in protest of the June 28 burning of a copy of the Quran by Salwan Momika, an Iraq-born man who now lives in Sweden.
Sweden's Foreign Ministry condemned the attack on its embassy in Baghdad, calling it a "serious violation" of the Vienna Convention.
Many countries, including the US, Russia, Türkiye, Iraq, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Afghanistan, as well as other Islamic states, decried the attack.
Following the storming of Sweden's diplomatic mission, Momika desecrated another copy of the Quran by stepping on it and the Iraqi flag in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm.
In response to the repeated act, the Iraqi government warned Sweden that it would break diplomatic relations if such desecrations of Muslim holy book continued.
Baghdad also declared Sweden's ambassador in the country a persona non grata after the holy book was desecrated for the second time in a month, ordering him to leave the country.
