TEHRAN/BAGHDAD: Iran announced late Friday that it would not allow a new Swedish ambassador into the country amid a row over Stockholm that allowed protests in which the Koran was desecrated.

Swedish Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian told state television, “The Swedish ambassador’s term in Tehran has expired, and according to the president’s order, until the Swedish government takes serious action on the desecration of the Holy Quran, we will not accept the new Swedish ambassador.”
“The Iranian ambassador will not be sent to Sweden,” he added.
His announcement came after an evening demonstration in the capital, Tehran, which saw hundreds of demonstrators gather outside the Swedish embassy.
The protest turned into a sit-in, with the crowd throwing eggs and tomatoes at the building and vowing to stay put until the Swedish ambassador was expelled from Iran, before later dispersing.
Earlier, the demonstrators gathered after Friday prayers, waving Iranian flags and carrying copies of the Islamic Bible.
“Down with the United States, Britain, Israel and Sweden,” the demonstrators chanted, while some in Tehran burned the Swedish flag.
Similar demonstrations were held in other major Iranian cities, including Tabriz in the northwest, Mashhad in the northeast and Isfahan in the center of the country.
The rallies came amid rising tensions between Stockholm and Muslim countries over an Iraqi refugee living in Sweden who last month burned pages from the Koran outside Stockholm’s main mosque.
In the most recent such incident on Thursday, refugee Selwan Momica trampled on the Qur’an and did not burn it. His action sparked renewed condemnation across the Muslim world.
Iran had already summoned the Swedish ambassador on Thursday to protest Stockholm’s permitting of Mumica’s actions on the grounds of freedom of expression.
Amir Abdollahian spoke with his Swedish counterpart, Tobias Billstrom, by phone on Friday.
A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs quoted him as saying, “Whoever committed this unforgivable insult must be arrested, tried and held accountable for his actions.”

Baghdad reassures foreign diplomatic missions

And in Iraq, the government on Saturday sought to reassure diplomatic missions in the country of its security, saying it would not allow the Swedish embassy to be stormed again.

The Foreign Ministry’s statement came a day after hundreds of demonstrators stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad and set it on fire in protest against plans to burn a copy of the Koran in Stockholm. Iraq also expelled the Swedish ambassador.

The ministry said, “The Iraqi government is fully committed to the Vienna Convention, which regulates diplomatic relations between countries and guarantees all resident diplomatic missions their security and protection.”

She added, “What happened to the embassy of the Kingdom of Sweden in Baghdad cannot be repeated, and any similar act will be subject to legal accountability.”

Sweden on Friday expressed security concerns in the decision to relocate embassy staff after the attack on its embassy compound.

“The embassy’s operations and foreign staff have been temporarily moved to Stockholm for security reasons,” the Swedish Foreign Ministry said.

Iraq condemned the embassy attack, but responded to Stockholm’s protest by expelling its ambassador, vowing to cut ties and saying it was suspending the operating license of Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson.

But an adviser to the prime minister told foreign reporters on Friday that contractual agreements would be respected, and “no company has been suspended, not even Ericsson”.

Protester Sabah al-Taei, 45, in Sadr City, Baghdad, said expelling the Swedish ambassador was not enough.

“We want more,” he said.

Crowds gathered there at the behest of the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose followers were behind the raid on the embassy late Wednesday.

Some demonstrators burned rainbow flags, which al-Sadr says highlight the “double standards” of Western governments in defending LGBT rights while allowing religious texts to be desecrated.

“Through this demonstration, we want to send a message to the United Nations,” said Amer Shamal, the municipal official, urging member states to “punish any desecration of holy books — those of Islam, Christianity and Judaism.”

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry, home to Islam’s holiest sites, said earlier that it would urge Sweden to “take all immediate and necessary measures to stop these reprehensible acts”.

Sweden’s decision to agree to the protest drew widespread condemnation from Arab and Islamic countries, including Oman and Kuwait, as well as Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, which invoked the Swedish charges.

The British Foreign Office also condemned the Qur’an protest, calling it “a profound insult to Muslims around the world and wholly inappropriate”.

Kuwait said it was coordinating with Arab countries to convene an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which includes 57 countries and is based in Jeddah, to take “concrete and practical” measures so that the insult to the Quran will not be repeated, according to the official news agency.

In an interview published on Friday, Mumica – who describes himself as an atheist – defended his actions and said they were intended to highlight discrimination against minorities in Iraq.

“My books were burned within the limits of Swedish law,” he told the French magazine Marianne. “I will continue to burn the Koran as long as I am legally permitted to do so.”

Billström called Momica’s protest an “obvious provocation” because it “in no way reflects the views of the Swedish government”, while also affirming the “constitutional right to freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and freedom to demonstrate”.

Photographers told AFP that supporters of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah group gathered in Lebanon on Friday. Many of the demonstrators chanted that they would “protect the Book of God” with “their blood”.