Tehran - (AFP) - The Iranian Foreign Ministry announced Thursday the closure of the French Institute for Research in Iran (IFRE) after the French satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo" published cartoons that Tehran considered insulting to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A statement issued by the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that the ministry holds "the French government unequivocally responsible for violating the sacred character of freedom and human rights, insulting religious values, and harming the religious beliefs and national sovereignty of other countries."

The statement added, "The Islamic Republic condemns the continued inaction of the concerned French authorities in the face of Islamophobia and the promotion of racist hatred in the French media." The ministry announced "an end to the activities of the French Research Institute in Iran as a first stage" of the Iranian response to the cartoons.

According to its website, the French Institute for Research in Iran is attached to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It was born in 1983 after the merger of the French Archaeological Mission in Iran (DAFI), established in 1897, and the French Institute of Iranian Sciences in Tehran (IFET), founded in 1947 by Henri Corbin.

Iran warned Paris on Wednesday that its response would be "decisive" after the publication of "insulting" caricatures of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the French magazine "Charlie Hebdo".

The French Institute for Research in Iran, located in central Tehran, remained closed for years, and it was reopened during the reign of former President Hassan Rouhani (2013-2021) as a sign of the return of warmth to relations between France and Iran. In particular, the institute has a rich library used by French language students and Iranian academics.