Foreign minister says Heimir Más’s remarks conflict with Icelandic policy

Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir said comments by Heimir Már Pétursson, parliamentary group director for the People’s Party, did not align with Iceland’s foreign policy, mbl.is reported. She noted that he had apologised for the comments and withdrawn them.

Heimir Már called on French President Emmanuel Macron to prepare France’s nuclear missiles for attacks in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He made the comment in a reply to a post by Macron on X.

Progressive Party MP Stefán Vagn Stefánsson asked whether the remarks could pose a reputational risk for Iceland internationally, and whether Þorgerður had discussed them with her coalition partners to clarify the government’s position on the use of nuclear weapons.

Þorgerður said the government unanimously supported nuclear disarmament and stood with Ukraine against Russia’s “brutal war”. She also questioned why opposition members had not commented on a retweet of a post by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticising Arctic Sentry, a joint NATO surveillance force.

She did not name the person who retweeted Lavrov’s post, but a post on former Icelandic President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson’s X account shows that he retweeted it on 31 August. Ólafur described Lavrov’s post as a key document for people interested in Arctic affairs.