TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian announced on Sunday that Tehran has decided to put off dispatching its newly-appointed ambassador to Sweden over the Scandinavian country’s controversial move of allowing sacrilege to the holy Quran. 

Iran has recently appointed a new ambassador to Sweden and all the procedures for the new ambassador have been done. The ambassador, Hojjatullah Faghani, met Amir Abdollahian on Saturday. 

Yesterday, we talked in detail with my colleague Mr. Hojjatullah Faghani, the new ambassador of our country to Sweden, and he also presented a report on the latest status of his mission,” the foreign minister said on Twitter. 

“Despite the completion of the administrative procedures, the process of dispatching the ambassador to Sweden has been stopped due to the action of the government of this country in issuing permits for the desecration of the holy Quran,” he added. 

Iran has protested the Swedish move. The chargé d’affaires of the Swedish embassy in Tehran was summoned to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the Director General of the Western Europe Department, in the absence of the country’s ambassador.

The official condemned the recent insult in Sweden against the most important Islamic sanctities, saying the Swedish government’s silence and passive behavior embolden violators of one of the basic and obvious principles of human rights, namely the principle of respect for religious and divine values, according to the foreign ministry.

While Muslims have been performing Hajj and honoring religious and Islamic rituals these days, insulting their sanctities solely serves to spread hatred and call for violence by abusing the principle of freedom of speech, the Swedish diplomat was told.

He added that such an ill-considered move was nothing new on Swedish soil, and that the Iranian side had previously relayed its dissatisfaction to Sweden.

If Sweden had taken action to stop such insults in time, no more desecration of Islamic sanctities would have taken place, the Iranian official said.

He added that the Islamic Republic, along with the entire Islamic world, does not tolerate any attack on the holy book of the Muslims or any greenlight for such moves, therefore, the Swedish government is expected to fulfill its most obvious duty in preventing insults to the spiritual and religious values of Muslims responsibly and in an effective and preemptive manner.

In response, the Swedish chargé d’affaires emphasized the Swedish government’s opposition to any form of Islamophobia, and stated that he would convey the protest to Stockholm as soon as possible.