Iran announced the closure of a French research institute in Tehran on Thursday in protest against a cartoon of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei published in the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said, “The ministry is terminating the activities of the French Institute for Research in Iran as a first step.” said in a statementadding that it would “review cultural ties with France.”
The French Research Institute in Iran, affiliated with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is a historical and archaeological institute established in 1983. after being closed It was reopened for several years when Hassan Rouhani became Iranian President, which was seen as a sign of warming bilateral relations.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdullahian warned on Wednesday that Paris had chosen the “wrong path” by allowing the publication of cartoons of the Iranian supreme leader, calling them “disgraceful”. Nicolas Roche, the French ambassador to Tehran Summoned To the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna reacted to Amir-Abdolahian’s comments saying that “bad policy is what Iran follows.”
Cartoon published as part of a contest launched by Charlie Hebdo last monthas a tribute to the Iranian women who have taken to the streets since Charlie Hebdo’s publishing director said 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody Tuesday on French radio.
The cartoon’s publication date came in the anniversary week of January 2015 attacks Charlie Hebdo’s Paris newsroom, which killed 12 people. The newspaper was targeted for publishing controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.