TEHRAN (AFP) - The international outcry over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed has intensified as Iran said it would cancel deals with countries in which newspapers had reproduced the images.
The list, which already included Denmark, where the 12 caricatures first appeared last year, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain, expanded Saturday to take in New Zealand and Poland.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the cancellation of economic contracts with countries where the media have carried cartoons of the prophet, the ISNA news agency reported.
The report said the hardline president had ordered the creation of an official body to respond to the cartoons, saying the regime "must revise and cancel economic contracts with the countries that started this repulsive act and those that followed them."
Iraqi transport ministry freezes deals with Denmark
BAGHDAD - Iraq’s transport ministry said on Sunday it had frozen contracts with Denmark and Norway in protest against blasphemous cartoons published in the countries’ newspapers.
“This decision was taken to protest the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad and we will not accept any reconstruction money from Denmark or Norway,” said a spokesman on behalf of Transport Minister Salam Al Malaki.
The spokesman said he did not know the value of contracts between Iraq and Denmark and Norway. Denmark has more than 500 troops in Iraq.
The uproar over the cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper and were reprinted in other European countries, has swept across the Muslim world.
