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French Foreign Minister on Charlie Hebdo cartoons: “In France, freedom of the press exists, unlike Iran”

The Iran he’d do well to look at what’s going on in his house before criticizing her FranceFrench Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said after calling the French charge d’affaires in Tehran on the sketches he posted yesterday the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

“Let’s keep in mind that in France the freedom of the press exists, contrary to what is happening in Iran and that this freedom is supervised by a judge within the framework of the independence of the judiciary, which is something that Iran is undoubtedly not well aware of,” he said, adding that in France there are no blasphemy laws.

See here are the magazine sketches

The satirical newspaper published dozens of sketches that have been selected in a competition in December, at the height of the movement protest in Iran. Charlie Hebdo announced in December that the international competition for sketches of Khamenei is aimed at supporting “Iranians who are fighting for their freedom”. Speaking to LCI TV, Catherine Colonna said that Iran is implementing bad policies by using violence against the population and detaining French nationals.

The Charlie Hebdo cartoons drew an angry response from Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian who warned the French government that Iran would retaliate after the publication of cartoons insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“We will not allow the French government to overreach. He has clearly chosen the wrong path,” said the Iranian foreign minister, demanding responsibility from the French government for reports in the French press, thus projecting to the France the familiar identification of regime and press for Iran, APE-MPE broadcasts.

“THE abusive and inappropriate behavior of a French publication by publishing sketches against the religious and political leadership will not go without an effective and severe response,” the Iranian minister said in Twitter. Charlie Hebdo published the cartoons in special edition on the anniversary of the December 7, 2015, murderous attack on its offices by men who said they were acting in the name of al-Qaeda in revenge for the paper’s decision to publish cartoons of Muhammad.

The publication of Muhammad’s sketches had caused anger in Muslim countries and the 2015 attacks had created a large movement of support for Charlie Hebdo around the world.

The Iranian regime has closed the French Research Institute in Tehran

Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic of Iran announced the closure of the French Research Institute in Iran (IFRI) in response to the publication of Khamenei’s sketches. A statement from Iran’s foreign ministry said it was “terminating IFRI’s activities as a first step” in Iran’s response to the publication of the sketches. IFRI is affiliated with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was founded in 1983 by the union of the French Archaeological Mission in Iran (DAFI, founded in 1897) and the French Institute of Iranology in Tehran, founded in 1947.

The French Research Institute had been closed for many years and reopened under the presidency of reformist Hassan Rouhani (2013-2021) in a sign of warming relations between France and Iran. The Institute includes a rich library used by French language students and Iranian academics.


Source: News Beast

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