Sweden temporarily moves Iraq embassy staff after storming

[July 21, 2023]  STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Seconded staff and operations at the Swedish embassy in Baghdad have been relocated temporarily to Stockholm for security reasons after it was stormed by protesters, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said on Friday.  

Lebanese Muslims participate in a demonstration called by the Shi'ite group Hezbollah to condemn what its leader called the desecration of the Koran in Sweden by anti-Islam protesters the previous day, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon July 21, 2023. REUTERS/Emilie Madi

Iraq expelled the Swedish ambassador on Thursday in protest at a planned burning of the Koran in Stockholm that had prompted hundreds of protesters to attack and vandalise the embassy in the Iraqi capital.

A Sweden foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday that the staff and operations would temporarily move to Stockholm for security reasons but declined to give further comment.

"What has happened is completely unacceptable and the government strongly condemns these attacks," Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said in a statement on Thursday.

(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen in Copenhagen and Johan Ahlander in Stockholm, editing by Anna Ringstrom)

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