Swedish Foreign Minister Leila Freivalds resigned Tuesday after she was accused of lying about her role in the closing of a far-right Web site that solicited cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. Meanwhile, Denmark's ambassador returned to Iran, about five weeks after violent protests over the cartoons forced the closure of the embassy in Teheran.
The drawings, published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September and then widely reprinted, sparked violent protests and threats in much of the Muslim world.
Freivalds, 63, faced harsh criticism already in December when a report found her partly responsible for the government's slow response to the 2004 South Asian tsunami that killed hundreds of vacationing Swedes.
Criticism mounted after she was accused of violating Sweden's free-speech laws by cracking down on a far-right party that was planning to publish caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad on its Web site.
The site was closed February 9 after a Foreign Ministry official contacted the Web hosting company. The ministry said the official had not the ordered company to shut down the site, but merely advised it that the caricatures could pose a danger to Swedes, given the anger directed at the time toward Denmark.
Freivalds had told Swedish media she did not order the ministry official to contact the company, but a later report from the ministry said she was involved in the decision. Media and opposition politicians accused her of lying about her role in the crackdown, and demanded she resign.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
"The reason that I have decided to request my dismissal is that it is impossible to carry out a serious job, and that is damaging for the government, the party and not least for the Foreign Ministry," Freivalds said at a news conference. Her closest aide, Cabinet Secretary Hans Dahlgren, also stepped down.
In Teheran, the Danish Embassy was temporarily closed on February 11 after demonstrators attacked it with rocks and fire bombs.
The Danish ambassador, Carl Juul Nielsen, returned to begin efforts to reopen the embassy, the Danish Foreign Ministry said.
"It's difficult to say how many days it will take to reopen the embassy as there was substantial damage done to the building," said Jette Nordam at the ministry. "But hopefully by next week." However, the ministry said its advisory for Danes to avoid nonessential travel to Iran stands because there is still anger over the cartoons.
Denmark's embassy in Jakarta reopened earlier this month, but diplomatic offices in Pakistan, Syria and Lebanon still are temporarily closed. The embassies in Syria and Lebanon were destroyed during the violent demonstrations.
The Danish government has repeatedly said that the withdrawals do not amount to diplomatic breaks with the countries, but are purely security measures.
