By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Authorities in Tehran says they are not considering sending a new ambassador to Sweden, in protest for the burning of a copy of the Koran in Stockholm, Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian said on Sunday.
According to Amirabdollahian, the administrative processes for the appointment of new ambassador has been completed but he would not be taking up the Stockholm post at this time.
On Wednesday, Tehran called in the Swedish chargé d’affaires to express anger at the incident in Stockholm when two men burned a copy of the Koran outside a mosque in the Södermalm district on the first day of the Eid al-Adha holiday.
Iraqi says one of the men suspected to have carried out the act is an Iraqi national and requested that Sweden hand him over to be tried in Iraq, where Koran-burning is an offence.
“Although administrative procedures to appoint a new ambassador to Sweden have ended, the process of dispatching them has been held off due to the Swedish government’s issuing of a permit to desecrate the Holy Koran,” Amirabdollahian said on Twitter on Sunday.
He did not specify how long Iran would refrain from sending an embassador to Sweden.
The Koran-burning was the first incident of its kind in Stockholm for some months.
Police in the Swedish capital allowed the demonstration to go ahead after similar actions were banned in February.
While police have rejected several recent applications for anti-Koran demonstrations, courts have overruled those decisions, saying they infringed freedom of speech.
In its permit for Wednesday’s demonstration, police said that while it “may have foreign policy consequences”, the security risks and consequences linked to a Koran burning were not of such a nature that the application should be rejected.
There have been protests in Iran, Iraq and other countries over the burning of the Koran.
Diplomatic relations between Iran and Sweden have been tense for some time. A Swedish-Iranian citizen was executed by the Iranian authorities earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the Saudi-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Sunday called for collective measures to avoid future Koran burnings.
