Iran does not intend to send its new ambassador, Hojatullah Faghani, to Sweden and refers to Wednesday’s Koran burning in central Stockholm. The country’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, announced this on Twitter on Sunday.
– This means that you do not accept what the Swedish government has done. This means that they do not want to cooperate at a high level with the Swedish government, which they hold responsible for what has happened. They see the Koran burning as an affront, says Iran expert Arvin Khoshnood.
The background to Iran not sending Faghani to Sweden is that the government gave its permission to Wednesday’s burning which took place outside Stockholm’s mosque.
In the post on Twitter, the foreign minister writes that “although administrative procedures to appoint a new ambassador to Sweden have been completed, the process of sending him (the ambassador) has been postponed due to the fact that the Swedish government has issued a permit to desecrate the Holy Koran” .
“Spread their own totalitarian ideology”
Hossein Amirabdollahian has not given any information on how long the measure will be maintained. According to Arvin Khoshnood, the situation must be understood in relation to the relationship between the two countries.
– Just last month a Swedish citizen was executed in Iran, and this is a way for the regime in Iran to pressure Sweden and the Swedish government, but also to limit freedom of expression and democracy in Sweden and spread its own totalitarian ideology, he says.
Swedish-Iranian Habib Chaab was executed in Iran in May. The relationship has also been cold after the Swedish verdict against the Iranian citizen Hamid Noury.
He was convicted last year of murder and violations of international law in connection with the executions of political prisoners in Iran in the summer of 1988. Iran has condemned the sentence.
Initiative against burning
On Sunday, the Muslim cooperation body Islamic Conference Organization (IKO) gathered for an extraordinary meeting due to the latest Koran burning in Sweden.
The organization’s secretary general, Hissein Brahim Taha, then called on the 57 member countries for “unified and collective action” to prevent “further desecrations” of the Koran.
“We must send constant reminders to the international community of the important need to comply with international law, which clearly prohibits any incitement to religiously motivated hate crimes,” he said in a statement.
Taha calls the Koran burning a “reprehensible act”. Countries such as Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco have also summoned Swedish ambassadors in protest against the burning.
– It is clear that Muslim countries are protesting in order to also keep the extremists in their countries in check. But what is different is that Iran takes advantage of the situation and tries to stir up hatred against Sweden and the Swedish government, says Arvin Khoshnood.
ICO
The IKO was founded in 1969 and is a cooperation body for Muslim states, but which also brings together a number of countries that do not have a Muslim majority population.
The organization describes itself as “the collective voice of the Muslim world” and is based in the Saudi Arabian city of Jidda.
IKO has permanent delegations both to the UN and the EU.
Source: TT