Iran refuses to send new envoy to Sweden due to Quran-burning

Iran's Foreign Ministry has said the country will not send a new ambassador to Sweden over the desecration of the Holy Quran in the Scandinavian country.

The decision comes four days after an Iraqi citizen living in Sweden stomped on Islam’s holy book and set several pages alight outside Stockholm's central mosque under a heavy police presence, according to the local news service Press TV.

The blasphemous act had been authorized by the Swedish police under the pretext of free-speech laws.

“Although the administrative procedures have been completed to send the new ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Sweden, the Foreign Ministry has presently no plans to send the new envoy to this country due to the insult to the Holy Quran there,” the informed source said.

The sacrilegious Quran burning, which coincided with the start of 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.

To recap, on June 28, in a repeated and state-authorized instance of sacrilege against the Muslim holy book, two men stood outside the Swedish capital of Stockholm's central mosque and burned a copy of the holy book following a go-ahead given to them by a Swedish court.

The move was made to coincide with the Muslim festivity of Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice), which marks the conclusion of the annual Hajj pilgrimage that is partaken by millions of Muslims from across the world.

The act of desecration has opened the floodgates of protest across the Muslim world.

To this end, on June 29, the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s director-general for Western Europe summoned Sweden's charge d'affaires in Tehran in the absence of Sweden's ambassador to Tehran. Upon summoning the Swedish diplomat, the ministry official conveyed the Islamic Republic's strong condemnation of the act of sacrilege against the most important of Islamic sanctities.