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NOBEL PRIZES

Iranian ambassador refused invite to Stockholm Nobel Prize banquet

The organisers of the Nobel Prize ceremony on Friday declared Iran's ambassador was not welcome at the glittering event in December, just days after issuing a similar snub to Russia and Belarus.

Iranian ambassador refused invite to Stockholm Nobel Prize banquet
Guests at the Nobel Banquet at Stockholm City Hall in 2019. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT

“Given the serious and escalating situation… Iran’s ambassador should not be invited to the Nobel Prize award ceremony”, the Nobel Foundation said in a statement, referring to Tehran’s brutal crackdown on widespread protests.

“For several decades, the Nobel Foundation’s starting point has been to invite all countries with diplomatic representation in Sweden (to)… celebrate the laureates’ contributions to science, literature and peace.”

However, earlier this week it announced that the envoys for Russia and Belarus would not be invited due to the war in Ukraine, nor would the leader of the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party.

The foundation said it had “decided to follow the Swedish and European diplomatic policy of not inviting Russia and Belarus because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

“Although Sweden and other European countries do not yet have any corresponding diplomatic policy regarding Iran, the issue is still evolving and we believe that… Iran’s ambassador should not be invited”.

The glitzy bash is held each year in Stockholm on December 10 when laureates in the fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics receive their awards from King Carl XVI Gustaf, followed by a gala banquet for around 1,200 guests.

A separate ceremony is held in Oslo on the same day for the Peace Prize laureate.

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SWEDEN AND IRAN

Swedish foreign minister confronts Iran over murder plot against Jews

Sweden's foreign minister said Thursday he had confronted his Iranian counterpart after reports Tehran's intelligence service sent an undercover couple to murder Jews in the country.

Swedish foreign minister confronts Iran over murder plot against Jews

Last week, Swedish Radio (SR), reported that a couple, Mahdi Ramezani and Fereshteh Sanaeifarid, had been suspected of planning to kill Jewish representatives in Sweden in 2021.

They arrived in Sweden posing as Afghan refugees in 2017, said the report.

“It is of course something extremely negative that a country is pursuing murder plots on our territory,” Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told the broadcaster.

The couple were arrested in April 2021 on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a terrorist crime, SR reported.

Due to a lack of evidence, they were never charged but were deported in 2022 for posing a security risk. According to SR, the Iranian couple denied the allegations.

“That Iranian agents on Swedish soil have plotted murders of Swedish citizens – and that these citizens are also of Jewish background – is of course something we take very seriously,” Billström said.

“I made this clear to my Iranian colleague, how we look at this and also of course how it affects the relationship between our countries,” he added.

Billström said he would raise the issue with his counterparts in the EU.

“This is a matter of general interest in the EU… and it may be beneficial for cooperation between EU member states to exchange ideas on this,” he told SR.

While the investigation into the couple is classified, SR cited sources saying that the two were working on behalf of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC.

The alleged agents had reportedly identified three different targets, gathering addresses and photographs.

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