Iran yesterday condemned an “insulting” poster on a bus in a French city depicting Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, state media reported.
The city of Beziers in southern France had run a campaign on buses calling for selective sorting of waste using portraits of Khamenei, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“Don’t forget to sort the trash,” said the slogan on the bus poster, according to the official Facebook page of the French city and images circulating on social media.
Photo: AFP
Majid Nili, the director-general for Western Europe at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “strongly condemned” the action of the French city, which was “insulting to the sacred values and personalities of our country,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
“The use of offensive content against officials of the Islamic republic of Iran is a flagrant violation of internationally accepted principles and rules based on respect for cultural values of other nations,” Nili said.
He called on the French government “to take the appropriate measures to prevent the repetition of such provocative actions.”
The incident comes on the back of other issues souring ties between the two nations.
France on Tuesday urged its citizens to avoid traveling to Iran until French nationals held there have been released.
French authorities say three of their citizens are held in Iran and calls them “hostages.”
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said that Iran was “the main strategic and security challenge for France, the Europeans, the entire region and beyond.”
Iran would be a key topic of discussion with US president-elect Donald Trump’s administration, which is to take office on Jan. 20, Macron said.
Iran called the remarks “baseless” and urged France “to reconsider its non-constructive approaches to peace and stability.”
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