Ministry: French Cartoons Insulting Iranian Values

Date: 09 January 2023 - 21:42

News ID: ۱۱۱۱۴۴

TEHRAN – Iran on Monday hit out at the French magazine Charlie Hebdo’s incendiary cartoons targeting the Islamic Republic’s top religious and political authority, saying the move was a clear example of hate-mongering, an insult to the sacred values and sanctities of other nations, and incitement to violence.
“We have declared our position and taken diplomatic actions in this regard. Accordingly, the Foreign Ministry published an official and strongly-worded statement. French Ambassador to Tehran Nicolas Roche was summoned, and handed a protest note to convey to his respective government,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani told reporters here.
“We reiterate that the French weekly magazine’s move is a straightforward example of hate-mongering, an insult to the values and sanctities of other nations, especially Muslim peoples, and an instance of incitement to violence,” he said.
He added that the publication’s act was an insult to Iranian people’s values and Islamic sanctities, as well as women, their personality, dignity and status.
“It is regrettable that the cartoons were published in a country, which claims to be an advocate of others’ values and rights but shows no respect whatsoever to the principles and fundamentals of the international law.”
Kanaani pointed out that Charlie Hebdo had earlier re-circulated insulting cartoons about Prophet Muhammad (Peace upon Him) and

Islam, arguing that the fact that its recent offensive cartoons were published at the same time that the occupying reigme of Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied Old City of al-Quds clearly means that the Zionists were behind the scenario.

“It is of great regret that the French government has failed to decry the act and has instead sought to justify it under the pretext of freedom of speech,” he said.

“We once again censure the French magazine’s move and believe that all world states and nations must react to the desecration of moral and religious values and consider it an illegal and immoral action against human and humanitarian values,” the spokesman added.

Dozens of Iranian protesters protested outside France’s embassy in Tehran on Sunday to express their anger at the French publication.

The protesters, most of them religious seminary students, held placards to condemn the move by the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and set fire to France’s national flag as they chanted slogans against France, the U.S., Britain and the occupying regime of Israel.

They waved Iranian flags, held pictures of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and signs reading, “I will sacrifice my life for the Leader.”

The participants also called on Iranian foreign ministry officials to take necessary measures in response.

Similar protests were also held in Iran’s holy city of Qom.

In a statement, the religious seminary students said the French government must stop its support for such irrational sacrilegious moves under the pretense of advocating freedom of expression.

They urged the French government and President Emmanuel Macron to apologize to the Iranian people.

Elsewhere in his remarks Monday, Kanaani condemned the decision by some members of the European Parliament (MEP) to support convicted rioters in Iran.

“Unfortunately, European authorities are undesirably and excessively exploiting all respected principles regarding international relations. We know that such theatrical gestures naturally fall within the framework of political goals,” the spokesman said.

“If the so-called advocates of human rights are really after supporting universal human values and political prisoners, why don’t they employ their political sponsorship to support thousands of oppressed Palestinian prisoners who are languishing in the dreadful prisons of the Zionist regime?” Kanaani asked.

“Why don’t they use such potential to support oppressed political prisoners in their allied countries who violate human rights? Why don’t they use it to support the oppressed refugees from Yemen, Syria, and Libya, who are displaced due to the wars imposed by Europe, and are being kept in Western camps and prisons across Europe and the United States?” he added.