Iran, Sweden discuss diplomatic interaction

The foreign ministers of Iran and Sweden weighed plans to strengthen diplomatic consultations between the two countries.

According to Tasnim news agency, in a telephone conversation on Wednesday evening, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Swedish counterpart Tobias Billstrom talked about the course of relations between Tehran and Stockholm.

Referring to the history of cooperation between Iran and Sweden, they stressed the need to strengthen diplomatic consultations and hold negotiations about issues of mutual interest.

The two senior diplomats also discussed a series of consular affairs.

In July 2023, Tehran suspended the exchange of ambassadors with Sweden on the Iranian president’s order following the desecration of the holy Quran in Stockholm.

The political relations between the two countries have also soured after Sweden imposed a life sentence on former Iranian official Hamid Nouri.

Nouri was arrested upon arrival at Stockholm Airport in November 2019 under unfounded allegations of rights abuse and for what was claimed to be his alleged role in the deaths of prisoners in Iran in the 1980s.

In December, the Stockholm Court of Appeals upheld a controversial life sentence for 62-year-old Nouri, saying that it “affirmed the judgment... in significant parts” that had been given to the former Iranian official in July 2022 for his alleged role in cases of human rights violations in Iran.

ME