Iraq expels Swedish ambassador over planned Quran burning

(Patria) - Iraq on Thursday expelled the Swedish ambassador in protest against the planned burning of the Quran in Stockholm, which led hundreds of demonstrators to storm and set fire to the Swedish embassy in Baghdad.

The Iraqi government said in a statement that Baghdad also recalled its charge d'affaires in Sweden, and the Iraqi state news agency reported that Iraq suspended the work permit of Swedish Ericsson on Iraqi soil, Reuters reported.

Anti-Islam demonstrators, one of whom is an Iraqi immigrant in Sweden who burned the Quran in front of a Stockholm mosque in June, requested and received permission from the Swedish police to burn the Quran in front of the Iraqi embassy on Thursday. The demonstrators kicked and partially destroyed a book they said was the Quran, but left the area after an hour without burning it.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said that the staff at the Swedish embassy in Baghdad were safe, but that the Iraqi authorities had not fulfilled their responsibility to protect the embassy.

The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Swedish ambassador to Tehran on Thursday evening to "strongly protest the desecration of the holy Quran", state media reported, while Turkey called the events in Stockholm an "act of contempt".

A spokesperson for the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the ambassador was summoned due to the events in Stockholm, but declined to comment on what was said during the meeting.

The head of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, called on Arab and Islamic nations to follow Iraq in expelling Swedish ambassadors and recalling their envoys from Sweden.

The Iraqi government condemned the attack on the embassy, according to a statement from the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, who declared it a security breach and promised to protect diplomatic missions. Baghdad also "informed the Swedish government that any repetition of an incident involving the burning of the Holy Quran on Swedish soil would require the severance of diplomatic relations," the statement said.

Billstrom said the attack on the embassy was "completely unacceptable and the government strongly condemns these attacks." He added: "The government is in contact with high-ranking Iraqi representatives to express our dismay."

In Washington, the State Department condemned the attack on the embassy and criticized the Iraqi security forces for not preventing demonstrators from breaking into the diplomatic mission.
The European Union stated that it looks forward to the "swift adoption of necessary security measures" by Iraq to prevent further incidents.

Thursday's demonstrations were called by supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in protest against a second planned Quran burning in Sweden in recent weeks. Sadr, one of Iraq's most powerful figures, commands hundreds of thousands of followers, whom he has occasionally called to the streets, including last summer when they occupied Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone and engaged in deadly clashes.

He stood next to the embassy on Thursday, saying at a press conference that the US "has no right to condemn the burning of the Swedish embassy, but it should have condemned the burning of the Quran."