Iran announced Thursday the closure of its oldest and most important French studies center in Tehran as the first response to Charlie Hebdo’s publication of cartoons deemed offensive to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, AFP reported.

France’s foreign ministry has not received “any official information” about the reports and “it would be unfortunate if they were confirmed,” Quai d’Orsay spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said in a written statement.

Iranian authorities warned France on Wednesday that it would take action after Charlie Hebdo published caricatures of the Islamic Republic’s most important religious and political figure on the same day.

“The Ministry is suspending the activities of the French Research Institute in Iran (IFRI) as a first step,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Quai d’Orsay stated that the IFRI is “a high place of culture and cultural exchange, born from the merger in 1983 of the French Archaeological Delegation in Iran, established in 1897, and the French Institute of Iranology in Tehran, founded in 1947 (French philosopher and orientalist, no) Henry Corbin.

IFRI, based in Tehran, is a branch of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to information on its website.

In its statement, the Iranian ministry accused the French authorities of “continuing inaction in the face of manifestations of anti-Islamism and propaganda of racist hatred in French publications.”

He called on the French government to prosecute the “authors (of) this kind of hatred”, stressing that the “Iranian people” would “seriously” follow France’s response.

The ministry also called on Paris to wage a “serious fight against Islamophobia.”