Iraq promises to keep embassies safe as Sweden faces threats at home

Iraq's Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told his Danish counterpart on Wednesday Iraq was determined to keep diplomatic missions safe, days after officials said Danish embassy staff left the country.

The Iraqi ministry said the Danish staff left on Monday, the same day that a small group of protesters in Denmark set fire to a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, in front of the Iraqi embassy in Copenhagen.

A string of Quran burnings in other countries has triggered protests across the Muslim world.

A spokesperson for the Danish foreign ministry said the embassy in Baghdad had been closed for the summer holidays since July 22. 

Sweden’s security situation has also deteriorated after recent Quran burnings in the country and protests in the Muslim world, both of which have negatively impacted the Nordic nation's image, its domestic security service said Wednesday.

The agency, known by its acronym SAPO, said the burning and desecration of religious books in Sweden, and ongoing disinformation campaigns on social media and elsewhere, have negatively affected Sweden’s profile.

The image of Sweden has changed “from a tolerant country to a country hostile to Islam and Muslims, where attacks on Muslims are sanctioned by the state and where Muslim children can be kidnapped by social services,” SAPO said in a statement.

This risks fueling threats against Sweden “from individuals within the violent Islamist milieu,” the agency said, adding the current risk of terrorism in Sweden remains at an elevated level, at three on a five-point scale.

“It’s a serious situation that we’re in,” Susanna Trehörning, SAPO’s deputy head of counter-terrorism, told Swedish public broadcaster SVT. “It’s a heightened threat and an attack can occur within the framework of a heightened threat.”

A recent string of public desecrations of the Quran by a handful of anti-Islam activists in Sweden and most recently in neighbouring Denmark has sparked angry reactions in Muslim countries.