July 20 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Foreign Action Service of the European Union has condemned this Thursday the attack that the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad suffered this morning, and has demanded that the Iraqi authorities guarantee the security of the legation.
“The EU strongly condemns the attack on the Swedish Embassy in Iraq and calls for the protection of diplomatic facilities in Baghdad, in accordance with the Vienna Convention,” the European Union diplomacy said in a brief statement.
Likewise, the EU has affirmed that it “waits with interest for the rapid adoption of the necessary security measures” by the Iraqi government in order to “avoid further incidents” and hold the perpetrators of the attack “accountable.”
“We expect a quick return to normality in relations between Iraq and Sweden,” the EU has settled.
Followers of the Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr have attacked and set fire to the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad in protest at the Swedish Police’s authorization of a new protest in Stockholm in which a copy of the Koran is scheduled to be burned.
In response, the Swedish Embassy in Iraq has suspended its activities on Thursday “until further notice” and, therefore, will stop issuing passports and emergency documents in the country.
The Swedish Foreign Minister, Tobias Billstrom, has criticized the Iraqi authorities for what happened and has summoned the country’s charge d’affaires in Sweden to transfer his protest to him.
