On Wednesday, a number of people were injured in a bomb attack at a World War I commemoration ceremony attended by European diplomats at a non-Muslim cemetery in Jeddah , Saudi Arabia, France’s foreign ministry said.
“The annual ceremony at the non-Muslim cemetery in Jeddah commemorating the end of World War I, attended by several consulates, including that of France, was attacked this morning by an IED attack that wounded several people,” the ministry said.
“This cowardly, unjustifiable attack is firmly condemned by France.”
Last month, on the same day that a knife-wielding man killed three people in a church in Nice in southern France, a Saudi resident with a knife wounded a guard at the French consulate in Jeddah.
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The explosion on Wednesday came as French President Emmanuel Macron attended a WWI memorial ceremony in Paris, the object of outrage in most of the Muslim world for vowing to confront what he terms Islamist radicalism after a spate of attacks.
The 102nd anniversary of the armistice signed by Germany and Allied countries to end the war is observed by many countries.
The right to print cartoons deemed insulting by others, including caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) published by the satirical journal Charlie Hebdo, has been fiercely defended by Macron.
The same cartoons were shown to pupils in a free speech class by French history teacher Samuel Paty, leading to his beheading outside Paris on October 16 after an online petition by parents furious about his choice of lesson material.
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The status of Macron offended many Muslims, triggering demonstrations in a number of countries that burned portraits of the French president, and a movement to boycott French goods.
Saudi Arabia, home to the holiest places of Islam, has defended the cartoons, but denounced the attack in Nice last month “strongly.”
On Tuesday, after four people were killed in a shooting spree in the heart of Vienna last week, Macron convened a summit of European leaders to plot a collective solution to fight Islamist radicalism.
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