Iran summoned France’s envoy in Tehran on Wednesday to protest against “insulting” cartoons published by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo depicting the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reports Reuters.
The French weekly had published dozens of cartoons about Khamenei, which it said were part of a competition it launched last month to support anti-government protests in Iran sparked by the death of a young woman in September while in the custody of morality police.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran does not accept insulting its Islamic, religious, and national sanctities and values in any way,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani told the French envoy on Wednesday, according to state TV.
The French Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.