Swedish ambassador to Lebanon Ann Dismorr. (Credit: Swedish ambassador to Lebanon Ann Dismorr's Twitter page)
BEIRUT — Swedish Ambassador to Lebanon Ann Dismorr left Lebanon on Friday for a "pre-planned vacation," a spokesperson for the embassy told L'Orient Today.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of supporters of Hezbollah gathered in the southern suburbs of Beirut and in party stronghold areas to protest the desecration of a Quran in Sweden. Protestors also demonstrated Friday in front of the Swedish Embassy in Beirut, where the Lebanese Army was heavily deployed. The situation remained under control
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday evening called for protests and the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador.
On Thursday, Iraq ordered the expulsion of its Swedish ambassador in response to the trampling of a copy of Islam's holy book by Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi refugee in Sweden.
The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also denounced the "desecration of the Quran in Stockholm" on Friday.
The spokesperson for the Swedish Embassy in Beirut declined to comment on Hezbollah supporters' protests.