Iran Holds Off Sending Ambassador to Sweden Over Quran Desecration

Iran has halted “administrative phases” to dispatch an ambassador to Sweden over the desecration of the holy Quran in the European nation, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said.
“Despite the conclusion of administrative phases, the procedures of dispatching an ambassador to Sweden has been halted for the time-being due to its government’s sanctioning of desecration of the holy Quran,” the top diplomat said in a post on his social media accounts.  
He noted that he had held detailed discussions with Iran’s new envoy to Sweden, Hojatollah Faghani, on the latest events in the Scandinavian country.
Prior to Amir-Abdollahian’s statement, an informed source in Tehran’s foreign ministry was cited in an IRNA report as saying that Iran does not intend to dispatch a new ambassador to Sweden over the state-sanctioned, anti-Islam action.
The source made the remarks on Sunday, four days after an Iraqi citizen residing in Sweden stomped on Islam’s holy book and set several pages alight outside Stockholm’s central mosque with heavy police presence that constituted a government-approved demonstration to insult Muslims and Islamic sanctities.
The blasphemous act had been authorized by the Swedish police under the pretext of free-speech laws.
The sacrilegious Quran burning, which coincided with the Muslim Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) at the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, sparked a wave of anger and condemnations across the Muslim world.
On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned Sweden’s chargé d'affaires in the capital Tehran.
During the session, the ministry’s director-general for Western Europe told the Swedish envoy that the act of insult served as an instance of hatemongering and inclination toward aggression that had been excused through the abuse of the principle of free speech.
Stockholm’s silence had emboldened those who have violated one of the fundamental and obvious principles of human rights, namely the principle of respect for religious and divine values, the Iranian official added.
Back in January, a Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist burned a copy of the Quran near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, also triggering outrage in the Muslim countries.