Swedish caricatures won't harm ties: Ahmadinejad (Roundup)

Aug 28, 2007, 15:16 GMT

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The cartoon by artist Lars Vilks has earlier triggered protests by Muslim groups and others in Sweden and was withdrawn from an art exhibition.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.