French mayor pulls recycling campaign Iran deemed "offensive"
A French city on Thursday removed posters depicting Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after Tehran called the images "insulting", in the latest incident in a period of strained relations between the two countries.
The southern city of Beziers ran a campaign on buses calling for selective sorting of waste using portraits of Iran's Khamenei, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The posters -- splashed with the slogan "Don't forget to sort the trash" -- sparked a forceful condemnation from Iran's foreign ministry, which called the campaign "offensive", according to the official IRNA news agency.
Beziers' far-right mayor, Robert Menard, insisted the flyers were created in jest but ordered the posters removed as a "precautionary measure".
"We take this very seriously. I don't want there to be the slightest problem, for example, for our bus drivers," Menard told AFP.
But he did defend the flyers, even saying their provocative message brought attention to the "real problem" of waste management.
"We've run lots of campaigns, but they never achieve anything. Nobody even notices them. This one, at least, everyone noticed," said Menard.
-'Flagrant violation'-
Iran's foreign ministry also called on the French government "to take the appropriate measures to prevent the repetition of such provocative actions".
"The use of offensive content against officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a flagrant violation of internationally accepted principles and rules based on respect for cultural values of other nations," said the director general for Western Europe, Majid Nili.
Relations are already strained between the two countries, with France on Tuesday urging its citizens to avoid travelling to Iran until French nationals held there have been released.
French authorities say three of their citizens are held in Iran and call them "hostages".
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said Iran was "the main strategic and security challenge for France, the Europeans, the entire region and beyond".
He added that Iran would be a key topic of discussion with US President-elect Donald Trump's administration, which will take office on January 20.
Iran called the remarks "baseless" and urged France "to reconsider its non-constructive approaches to peace and stability".
