After learning of a planned Quran burning in Stockholm, hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad and set it on fire. As a result, Iraq expelled the Swedish ambassador on Thursday.
Baghdad also recalled its chargé d’affaires in Sweden, according to a statement from the Iraqi government, and the state news agency of Iraq stated that Baghdad had revoked Ericsson’s right to work on Iraqi soil. The burning of the Quran outside the Iraqi embassy was requested by anti-Islam protestors, including an Iraqi immigrant to Sweden who, in June, torched the Quran outside a Stockholm mosque. Swedish police granted their request.
In the end, the demonstrators stomped on and partially tore apart a book they claimed to be the Quran but left the location an hour later without setting it ablaze. Tobias Billstrom, the foreign minister of Sweden, stated that although the workers at the Swedish embassy in Baghdad were safe, Iraqi authorities had failed in their duty to safeguard the embassy. According to state media, Iran’s foreign ministry summoned Sweden’s ambassador to Tehran late on Thursday to “strongly protest against the desecration of the holy Quran,” while Turkey described what happened in Stockholm as “a despicable attack.”
The Swedish foreign ministry’s representative stated that the ambassador was summoned in response to the incidents in Stockholm. However, the representative refrained from disclosing any details regarding the discussions during the meeting.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the potent military organization Hezbollah in Lebanon, urged Arab and Islamic countries to follow Iraq in dismissing Sweden’s ambassadors and withdrawing their envoys from Sweden. According to a statement from the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, the Iraqi government denounced the attack on the embassy, called it a security violation, and committed to defending diplomatic missions. Nevertheless, the message also indicated that Baghdad had notified the Swedish government that any future occurrence of the incident where the Holy Quran was burned on Swedish territory would require the termination of diplomatic ties.
While the protest in Stockholm was in progress but before the demonstrators left without setting the Quran on fire, the decision to recall the chargé d’affaires was made. According to Billstrom, the government severely condemns these acts and called the storming of the embassy “completely unacceptable.” He stated that the administration is communicating with influential Iraqi officials to express our dissatisfaction.
The State Department in Washington condemned the Iraqi security forces for their inability to prevent protesters from breaching the embassy. The State Department also denounced the attack on the mission. Iraq must “swiftly adopt the necessary security measures,” according to the European Union, to prevent further tragedies.
As per the messages found in a Telegram group linked to the influential religious leader and other media supportive of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, his followers urged for a protest on Thursday following the announcement of a second Quran burning event in Sweden within the last few weeks.
One of the most influential individuals in Iraq, Sadr commands hundreds of thousands of supporters, whom he has occasionally summoned to the streets, as they did last summer when they occupied Baghdad’s strongly protected Green Zone and engaged in fatal fighting.
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