Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, has declared that the reception of the new Swedish ambassador will be put on hold, and likewise, Iranian ambassador will not be dispatched to Stockholm.
On Friday night, July 21, Amirabdollahian said, “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”. He added, “Yet we will not dispatch Iranian ambassador to Stockholm”.
Post the unsettling act of Quran desecration that transpired on June 29, perpetrated by an Iraqi national on Swedish soil, Iran had already halted dispatching its ambassador to Stockholm.
A renewed similar offense occurred this last Thursday. Salwan Momika, a man of Iraqi descent now residing in Sweden, desecrated not only the Muslim holy book, the Quran, but also the national Iraqi flag in the vicinity of the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm.
On Thursday night, Nasser Kanani, the spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, summoned the Swedish ambassador in Tehran.
Subsequently, on Friday, Tobias Billström, the Swedish Foreign Minister, had a telephonic conversation with his Iranian counterpart. He said that the Swedish government did not condone the desecration of the Quran and elaborated that the police simply granted permission for assembly rather than endorsing the insulting act towards the Quran. However, Minister Amirabdollahian unequivocally stated that unless the offender is apprehended and subjected to trial, Sweden should anticipate a decisive decision from the Muslim nations.
