Iran closes Tehran-based French Institute over insulting cartoons

In a statement on Thursday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry announced it “does not tolerate silence on the vulgar French magazine’s anti-cultural and anti-human move and ends the activities of the French Institute of Research in Iran, as a first step, while reviewing cultural ties with France and the possibility of a continuation of France’s cultural activities in Iran.”

Charlie Hebdo has recently published insulting cartoons of Islamic Marjaea (religious authorities).

The ministry called on the French government hold “to account the perpetrators and promoters of the latest sacrilegious move and prevent a repetition of the move.”

The statement also reads, “The Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic of Iran emphasizes the undeniable responsibility of the French government vis-à-vis violations of the esteem for freedom and human rights, insults against religious values, infringement of religious beliefs, and threats against other countries’ national sovereignty by legal and natural persons under the rule of the French government.”

The Iranian Foreign Ministry deplored “the lasting inaction of relevant French authorities in the face of the manifestations of Islamophobia and the racist hate-mongering in French publications.”

The Iranian Foreign Ministry also on Wednesday summoned the French ambassador in protest at the publication of the cartoons.