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TERRORISM

Three things we know about the terror threat in Sweden

The US is warning Americans in Sweden of possible terror attacks in retaliation of recent Koran burning incidents, but the Swedish security police say their terror threat level remains unchanged. Here's a brief rundown of what we know so far.

Published: 7 February 2023 16:23 CET
Three things we know about the terror threat in Sweden
File photo of the US embassy in Stockholm. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT

The US is warning its citizens to keep a low profile

The warning was published in a new notice on the US embassy’s homepage.

“US citizens are advised to use caution when going to public venues frequented by large numbers of people. Gathering sites such as places of worship could be targeted. Please use caution when in, and around, all diplomatic facilities. Report suspicious activity to the relevant authorities,” reads the notice.

‘Disinformation campaign against Sweden’

The warning comes after a far-right extremist last month burned the Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, causing Turkey to suspend Nato talks with Sweden and Finland, and causing outrage and demonstrations in many Muslim countries.

Swedish authorities have previously warned that anger sparked by incidents such as the burning of the Koran, as well as the hanging of an effigy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by a pro-Kurdish group in January, could lead to a risk of threats.

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At a press conference last week, the head of Sweden’s Psychological Defence Agency said that there was an ongoing extensive disinformation campaign against Sweden, including violent statements mentioning the country as a legitimate terror target following protests such as these.

Overall terror threat level remains unchanged

The Swedish security police have not raised Sweden’s terror threat level as a result.

It is currently at three on a scale from one to five, where it has remained since 2010, with the exception of a period in 2015 when it was temporarily raised to four.

Level three is described as “elevated” which means “an attack could happen” but doesn’t mean one is imminent.

A spokesperson for the security police told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that they were aware of the warning from the US government.

“All countries make their own threat assessments and have their own classifications. In the case of the US we refer to them. As for our assessment of the terror threat leavel, it remains at an elevated level, a three on a five-point scale,” said the spokesperson.

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NATO

Swedish PM says he’d consider hosting nuclear weapons in wartime

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said there's broad consensus not to allow nuclear weapons on Swedish soil in peacetime, but added that wartime is a different matter.

Published: 13 May 2024 12:27 CEST
Swedish PM says he'd consider hosting nuclear weapons in wartime

Sweden’s parliament is set to vote on a Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with the United States in June which will give the US access to military bases in Sweden and allow the storage of military equipment and weapons in the Scandinavian country.

Sweden abandoned two centuries of military non-alignment to join Nato in March this year.

Calls have mounted in recent weeks, from the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Association among others, for the government to put in writing in the DCA agreement that Sweden will not allow nuclear weapons on its soil.

The government has repeatedly insisted there is no need to have a ban spelled out, citing “broad consensus on nuclear weapons” in Sweden as well as a parliamentary decision that bars nuclear weapons in Sweden in peacetime.

But Kristersson said on Monday that wartime was a different story.

“In a war situation it’s a completely different matter, (it) would depend entirely on what would happen,” he told public broadcaster Swedish Radio.

“In the absolute worst-case scenario, the democratic countries in our part of the world must ultimately be able to defend themselves against countries that could threaten us with nuclear weapons.”

He insisted that any such decision to place nuclear weapons in Sweden would be taken by Sweden, not the United States.

“Sweden decides over Swedish territory,” he said.

But, he stressed, “the whole purpose of our Nato membership and our defence is to ensure that that situation does not arise”.

If Ukraine had been a Nato member “it would not have been attacked by Russia”, he said.

Sweden’s Social Democratic Party, which was in power when Sweden submitted its Nato membership application in May 2022, said at the time it would work to express “unilateral reservations against the deployment of nuclear weapons and permanent bases on Swedish territory”.

Nordic neighbours Denmark and Norway, which are already Nato members, have both refused to allow foreign countries to establish permanent military bases or nuclear weapons on their soil in peacetime.

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