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Sweden to Raise the Issue of Iranian Murder Plots with EU

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom on the sidelines of the European ministerial meeting in Brussels in December. (AP)
Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom on the sidelines of the European ministerial meeting in Brussels in December. (AP)
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Sweden to Raise the Issue of Iranian Murder Plots with EU

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom on the sidelines of the European ministerial meeting in Brussels in December. (AP)
Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom on the sidelines of the European ministerial meeting in Brussels in December. (AP)

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said on Thursday that it is “extremely negative” that a country pursues murder plots in Sweden.
Billstrom expressed frustration to his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian after reports that Tehran’s intelligence service sent an undercover couple to murder Jews in the country.
Last week, Swedish Radio (SR) reported that an Iranian couple, Mahdi Ramezani and Fereshteh Sanaeifarid, had been suspected of planning to kill Jewish representatives in Sweden in 2021.
The couple were arrested in April 2021 on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a terrorist crime, SR reported.
“It is of course something extremely negative that a country is pursuing murder plots on our territory,” Billstrom told the SR.
They were deported in 2022 for posing a security risk.
Iran didn’t comment on the report, but Amirabdollahian contacted his Swedish counterpart 24 hours after the plot details were published.
“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,” Billstrom 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.
The reports said that the couple had arrived in Sweden posing as Afghan refugees in 2017. SR cited sources saying that the two were working on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC.
The alleged agents had reportedly identified three targets, gathering addresses and photographs.
Billstrom 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.

 

 

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Russia Condemns Israel's Killing of Hezbollah Leader Nasrallah

Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addresses his supporters during a religious procession to mark Ashura in Beirut's suburbs November 14, 2013. REUTERS/Khalil Hassan/File Photo
Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addresses his supporters during a religious procession to mark Ashura in Beirut's suburbs November 14, 2013. REUTERS/Khalil Hassan/File Photo
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Russia Condemns Israel's Killing of Hezbollah Leader Nasrallah

Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addresses his supporters during a religious procession to mark Ashura in Beirut's suburbs November 14, 2013. REUTERS/Khalil Hassan/File Photo
Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addresses his supporters during a religious procession to mark Ashura in Beirut's suburbs November 14, 2013. REUTERS/Khalil Hassan/File Photo

Russia strongly condemns Israel's killing of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the foreign ministry said on Saturday, calling on Israel to stop hostilities in Lebanon.

"This forceful action is fraught with even greater dramatic consequences for Lebanon and the entire Middle East," the ministry said in a statement.

Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday Nasrallah had been killed, issuing a statement hours after the Israeli military said it had eliminated him in an airstrike on the group's headquarters in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday.
Nasrallah's death marked a devastating blow to Hezbollah as it reels from an intense campaign of Israeli attacks, and even as the news emerged some of the group's supporters were desperately hoping that somehow he was still alive, Reuters reported.

"God, I hope it's not true. It's a disaster if it's true," said Zahraa, a young woman who had been displaced overnight from Hezbollah's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
"He was leading us. He was everything to us. We were under his wings," she told Reuters tearfully by phone.
She said other displaced people around her fainted or began to scream when they received notifications on their phone of Hezbollah's statement confirming his death.
Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah since the group's previous leader was killed in an Israeli operation in 1992, was known for his televised addresses - watched carefully by both the group's backers and its opponents.
"We're still waiting for him to come out on the television at 5 p.m. and tell us that everything is okay, that we can go back home," Zahraa said.
In some parts of Beirut, armed men came into shops and told owners to shut them down, witnesses said. It was not immediately clear what faction the armed men belonged to.
Sprays of gunshots were heard in the Hamra district in the city's west as mourners fired in the air, residents there said. Crowds were heard chanting, "For you, Nasrallah!"