(Bloomberg) -- Iran's foreign ministry summoned the French ambassador after the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published a series of cartoons mocking the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The envoy, Nicolas Roche, was summoned Wednesday to hear Iran's “strong protest” against the Paris-based publication's “obscene actions” which were “insulting to authority, sacredness and religious and national values,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Earlier on Wednesday, Charlie Hebdo published the cover of its latest issue which features an open call for caricatures of Khamenei as a response to the Islamic Republic's deadly crackdown on widespread anti-government protests.
Iran's Foreign Minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, condemned the cartoons in a tweet, warning “we won't allow the French government to overstep the mark.”
Charlie Hebdo has often been attacked by Islamists for publishing cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad, which many Muslims find offensive. In January 2015, 12 of its staff were shot dead by two jihadist gunmen who'd stormed the magazine's offices.
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