Iran pulls movie from Oscars race over US anti-Islam film

TEHERAN (AFP) - Iran announced on Monday it was yanking its entry in the Oscars race because of the "intolerable insult" of the United States-made anti-Islam film that has angered Muslims in several countries.

Oscars organisers in Los Angeles said they had not heard officially from Iranian authorities, after the announcement in Teheran by Culture Minister Mohammad Hosseini.

"I am officially announcing that in reaction to the intolerable insult to the Great Prophet of Islam we will refrain from taking part in this year's Oscars and we ask other Islamic nations to show their protest like this," the minister said, cited by the ISNA news agency.

Iran was pulling its sole movie entered in the Academy Awards, A Cube Of Sugar, after discussions with its production company, he said. In the last Academy Awards, held in February this year, an Iranian film, A Separation, won the Oscar for best foreign language film.