Iran Protests Publishing of Charlie Hebdo's Cartoons of Supreme Leader Khamenei, Summons French Envoy

JAKARTA - Iran sternly warned France Wednesday it would respond, after "derogatory" cartoons depicting Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were published in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The weekly published dozens of cartoons the same day poking fun at Iran's top religious and political figures.

The magazine said the cartoons were part of a competition launched in December to support the protests caused by the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in the custody of Iran's moral police.

"The insulting and indecent act of a French publication in publishing cartoons against religious and political authorities will not go ahead without an effective and decisive response," tweeted Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.

"We will not let the French government go beyond its limits. They must have chosen the wrong path," he said.

The French magazine said the contest was aimed "to support the cause of the Iranian people fighting for their freedom".

Relatedly, Iran summoned the French envoy to Tehran on Wednesday, to protest the publication of the cartoons, Iranian state media reported.

"The Republic of Iran does not accept insulting its sacred and Islamic, religious and national values ​​in any way," Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani told French envoys on Wednesday, according to state TV.

The French Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iranian authorities say hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed and thousands arrested in what they call "riots", accusing hostile foreign powers and opposition groups of fomenting the unrest.

Additionally, Charlie Hebdo published the caricatures in a special edition commemorating the deadly attack on its Paris offices on January 7, 2015, by attackers who said they were acting on behalf of Al Qaeda, to retaliate for the magazine's decision to publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, PBUH.