TEHRAN -- The Iranian foreign ministry has strongly condemned “insulting” content used by the mayor of a French city against Iran’s sanctities and personalities.
The city of Beziers in southern France recently ran a campaign on buses, using insulting portraits of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“The use of offensive content against officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a flagrant violation of internationally accepted principles and rules regarding respect for cultural values of other nations,” director for Western Europe at the Iranian foreign ministry Majid Nili said on Thursday.
“This is a clear example of hatred-mongering,” he added.
Nili said Iran has officially protested to France through diplomatic channels and called on the country’s government to take an appropriate measure to prevent the repetition of such “provocative” actions.
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron accused Iran of posing a main strategic and security challenge to France, the Europeans, the entire region, and beyond, accusing the country of accelerating its nuclear program and supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei rejected the French president’s allegations as “baseless and contradictory.”