عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Counterintelligence Police: Sweden has Thwarted Iranian Attack Plots

Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
TT
TT

Counterintelligence Police: Sweden has Thwarted Iranian Attack Plots

Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

A senior member of the Swedish security police said Thursday that Iran has planned attacks on the country, days after local media reported that two Iranians were deported for a plot to kill three Swedish Jews several years ago.
Earlier this week, Swedish broadcast SR reported that two Iranians had been suspected of planning to kill members of the Swedish Jewish community. They were arrested in 2021 and were expelled from Sweden in 2022 without charges, according to Swedish radio.
According to The Associated Press, Daniel Stenling, counterespionage head at Sweden’s domestic security agency, told SR on Thursday that Iran “has been preparing and conducted activities aimed at carrying out a so-called physical attack against someone or something in Sweden.”
He added, "we have worked on a number of such cases where we have, as we gauge it, thwarted such preparations.” He declined to give specifics.
The two deported Iranians sought asylum in the Scandinavian country in 2015, claiming to be Afghans, and eventually got shelter in Sweden, according to SR. The report identified them as Mahdi Ramezani and Fereshteh Sanaeifarid, and said they have links to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
A Swedish prosecutor earlier confirmed to The Associated Press that the two, a man and woman, were suspected of planning to carry out an attack “deemed to be terror” and that they have been expelled from Sweden. Prosecutor Hans Ihrman did not say when.
Ihrman told the AP that the prosecution “failed to get the necessary evidence that had been a prerequisite to be able to bring charges.” He also declined to give further details.
SR said the Iranians arrived in Sweden in 2015 as hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers sought to Europe. Sweden, with a population of 10 million, took in a record 163,000 migrants in 2015 — the highest per capita of any European country.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Wednesday the report was “very serious.”
“We have had too many people in Sweden entering on the wrong grounds and who were not stopped at the border,” Kristersson said. “It is extremely important that dangerous people are stopped if they try to enter.”
The security agency earlier has said that Iran was active in Sweden and has been described as one of the countries that pose the greatest intelligence threat to Sweden.
“But I can’t go into detail about what it’s about, because then I’d reveal what we’re doing,” Stenling told SR.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

COP29 Nations are No Closer to a Goal on Cash for Climate Action

Participants and security staff stand outside the venue of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 16 November 2024. EPA
Participants and security staff stand outside the venue of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 16 November 2024. EPA
TT
TT

COP29 Nations are No Closer to a Goal on Cash for Climate Action

Participants and security staff stand outside the venue of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 16 November 2024. EPA
Participants and security staff stand outside the venue of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 16 November 2024. EPA

Distractions were bigger than deals in the first week of the United Nations climate talks, leaving a lot to be done, especially on the main issue of money.
In week one, not a lot of progress was made on the issue of how much money rich countries should pay to developed ones to move away from dirty fuels and how to cope with rising seas and temperatures and pay for damage already caused by climate-driven extreme weather.
But more is expected when government ministers fly in for week two to handle the hard political deal-making at the negotiations — known as COP29 — in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Countries remain about a trillion dollars a year apart in the big number to be settled.
“All the developing countries look very united behind $1.3 trillion. That’s not a ceiling. That’s what they want. That’s what they think they need,” said Debbie Hillier, policy lead at Mercy Corps.
“The US and Canada are constantly talking about a floor of $100 billion.... So you've got $100 billion at one end and $1.3 trillion on the other end,” she said.
While poor countries have come up with a number for the total final package, the rich donor nations have assiduously avoided giving a total, choosing to pick a figure late in the bargaining game, Hillier said.
United Nations Climate Secretary Simon Stiell said, “negotiations on key issues need to be moving much faster.”
“What’s at stake here in Baku,” Stiell said, is “nothing less than the capacity to halve emissions this decade and protect lives and livelihoods from spiraling climate impacts.”
At the moment, the sides are far away, which is sort of normal for this stage.
“The technical details that are worked out by negotiators now have to give way to the bigger, harder number decisions made by climate and finance ministers to make more political decisions,” said Ani Dasgupta, president of World Resources Institute.
For her part, United Nations Environment Program Executive Director Inger Andersen said, “Member states have not moved and parties have not moved as expeditiously as they need to do.”
She added, “This is causing frustration. I understand that. So the answer is to push and push more and ensure that we land where we need to land.”
Andersen said it’s not smart to judge where countries will end up after just one week. Things change. It’s the nature of how negotiations are designed, experts said.
That’s how it usually goes.
Avinash Persaud, a special climate adviser at the Inter-American Development Bank said, “COP works on brinkmanship.”
He added that “COP works on the fear of us not reaching agreement in the end, which makes the process appear chaotic from the outside.”
Ministers will be consulting with their bosses half a world away and seven hours behind at the Group of 20 countries — the G20 — in Brazil from Monday.
Currently, eyes are on the COP president. Usually, the second week is when the COP president takes over and pushes sides together for a deal. Different negotiations' presidents have different styles. Last year's president used sharp elbows to get things done, upsetting some people.