Stockholm/Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
said Tuesday that the latest caricatures in the Swedish newspaper
Nerikes Allehanda would not harm Tehran-Stockholm ties.
'A minor newspaper has made a stupid mistake and I am sure that
even the Swedish people are against insults of holy prophets. The
issue should however not be exaggerated,' Ahmadinejad told reporters
at a press conference in Tehran.
'I assume that the Zionists (Israel) are behind this latest move.
They not only want to insult the prophet but also prevent friendly
relations between Swedes and Iranians,' Ahmadinejad added.
The Iranian president claimed that most of the Europeans were
against 'Zionist policies' and said that he received several
messages, especially from Germany, in this regard.
Iran had protested against the publication of a caricature
depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a dog, a Swedish Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Sweden's charge d'affaires Gunilla von Bahr was summoned Monday to
the Iranian Foreign Ministry where the authorities expressed their
view that it was 'an insult to the Prophet Mohammed,' spokeswoman
Sofia Karlberg said, adding that the Swedish government had no
further comment.
The caricature, published August 19 in the regional newspaper
Nerikes Allehanda, shows the prophet's head on a dog's body.
The cartoon by artist Lars Vilks has earlier triggered protests by
Muslim groups and others in Sweden and was withdrawn from an art
exhibition.
The editor of Nerikes Allehanda, Ulf Johansson, defended his
decision to publish the cartoon along with an article on freedom of
speech and self-censorship.
The September 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of Mohammed in a
Danish newspaper triggered angry protests in many Muslim countries in
January and February 2006.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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