Iran has warned France that it will react, following the publication of “offensive” caricatures of Iranian leader Ali Khamenei in the French satirical weekly ‘Charlie Hebdo’.
The magazine published dozens of caricatures of Iran’s supreme religious and political leader on Wednesday.
The cartoons were chosen from entries for a contest launched in December 2022, as demonstrations increased in response to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, the Iranian-Kurdish woman who died after being arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code.
“The insulting and unwelcome act of a French publication by publishing caricatures against religious and political authority will not go without a conclusive and strong response,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Twitter. “We will not allow the French government to cross the line. It has definitely chosen the wrong path.”
Charlie Hebdo announced in December an “international competition for caricatures” about Khamenei to support Iranians “fighting for their freedom.”
The weekly published the cartoons in a special edition for the anniversary of the deadly attack on its office in Paris on 7 January 2015. That terror attack in the name of Al Qaeda was an act of revenge for the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
