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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
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

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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POLITICS

Over a thousand people join protest against Stockholm attack

Over a thousand people joined a demonstration in Gubbängen, southern Stockholm, on Saturday, protesting Wednesday's attack by far-right extremists on a lecture organised by the Left and Green parties.

Over a thousand people join protest against Stockholm attack

The demonstration, which was organised by the Left Party and the Green Party together with Expo, an anti-extremist magazine, was held outside the Moment theatre, where masked assailants attacked a lecture organised by the two parties on Wednesday. 

In the attack, the assailants – described as Nazis by Expo – let off smoke grenades and assaulted several people, three of whom were hospitalised. 

“Let’s say it how it is: this was a terror attack and that is something we can never accept,” said Amanda Lind, who is expected to be voted in as the joint leader of the Green Party on Sunday. 

She said that those who had attended the lecture had hoped to swap ideas about how to combat racism. 

“Instead they had to experience smoke bombs, assault and were forced to think ‘have they got weapons’?. The goal of this attack was to use violence to generate fear and silence people,” she said.  

EXPLAINED: What we know about the attack on a Swedish anti-fascist meeting

More than a thousand people gathered to protest the attack on a theatre in Gubbängen, Stockholm. Photo: Oscar Olsson/TT

Nooshi Dadgostar, leader of the Left Party, said that that society needed to stand up against this type of extreme-right violence. 

“We’re here today to show that which should be obvious: we will not give up, we will stand up for ourselves, and we shall never be silenced by racist violence,” said said.

Sofia Zwahlen, one of the protesters at the demonstration, told the DN newspaper that it felt positive that so many had turned up to show their opposition to the attacks. 

“It feels extremely good that there’s been this reaction, that we are coming together. I’m always a little worried about going to this sort of demonstration. But this feels safe.”

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