TEHRAN, 4 July 2005 — Iran said yesterday it had lodged a formal diplomatic protest after a newspaper in Bahrain published a cartoon deemed insulting to the Islamic republic’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi also warned countries in the region not to offend Iran’s ruling Shiite clergy, saying that “our capabilities are incomparable”.
“As soon the caricature was printed in the paper we sent them a notice, we summoned the Bahraini ambassador in Tehran, met with the one of directors of the Bahraini foreign ministry and their information minister there,” Asefi said. Late last, month the Al Ayyam newspaper published a caricature showing Khamenei next to a graph representing the presidential election, which was won by hard-liner Mahmood Ahmadinejad.
Iran has also warned the European Union that any proposal on the future of its nuclear activities will be rejected if it does not enshrine the Islamic republic’s “right” to sensitive technology. Britain, France and Germany are trying to convince Iran to completely abandon its enrichment program, and have promised to come up with the outlines of a long-term accord by the end of July.
“We hope this proposal will have our right to use of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes,” Asefi told reporters. “Otherwise we will not accept such a plan.”
