Charlie Hebdo's Khamenei cartoons stir storm between Iran and France
Iran's already frosty ties with France are worsening as the Islamic Republic closed down a key French cultural institute, hard-liners demanded the expulsion of the French envoy and the walls of the French mission were covered with graffiti.
TEHRAN — A diplomatic row is unfolding between Tehran and Paris this week after the French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo published a series of cartoons featuring Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as an executioner.
Infuriated by the sketches, Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned their publication as an "insult" and "desecration of Islamic values" as it summoned the French ambassador to present him with its "strongest protest" late on Wednesday.
According to the the Foreign Ministry's website, spokesperson Nasser Kanani told the French envoy that Tehran will not accept justifications that involve "the pretext of press freedoms."
Earlier this week, Charlie Hebdo published a series of cartoons in support of the uprising in Iran that has seen over 500 people killed, with two protesters sent to the gallows and scores more feared to be facing the same fate.
