The Swedish Foreign Minister confronts Iran over a plot to kill Jews in his country

The Swedish Foreign Minister said on Thursday that he expressed his dismay to his Iranian counterpart following an investigation aired by Swedish public radio about a couple sent by Tehran to assassinate Jews in Sweden.

Tobias Billström stated on Sveriges Radio, "It's very negative for a country to place assassination plots on our territory. We don't take it lightly; it's serious."

The radio revealed in early February that a man named Mehdi Ramezani and a woman named Farzaneh Sanaeirad planned to kill Jewish individuals in Sweden in 2021. They were arrested in April of the same year on suspicion of conspiring to commit a terrorist crime, a charge they deny.

They were deported from Sweden in 2022 to Iran because they posed a threat to the country's national security.

The minister pointed out that "the presence of two Iranian agents preparing to kill Swedish citizens of Jewish origin on Swedish soil is something we take very seriously." He added, "I have clearly explained this to my Iranian counterpart (...) and how it affects the relationship between our two countries, Iran and Sweden."

The couple, who were granted asylum in Sweden in 2017 after presenting themselves as Afghans, were found to be working for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard according to the radio investigation.

According to the investigation, the supposed agents identified three targets and gathered their addresses and photographs.

Billström said he would raise this issue with his counterparts in the European Union, stating, "This is a matter of general interest in the European Union, and we (...) are interested in the opinions of other member states regarding Iran's activities on their territories."

AFP