Iran summons Swedish ambassador after minister calls Iran a ‘rogue state’

Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Sweden’s ambassador in Tehran to protest comments by Sweden’s education minister, who criticized Iran following a Swedish media report alleging that an Iranian student at Lund University had ties to Iran’s intelligence services.

"The Swedish Ambassador in Tehran, Mathias Otterstedt, was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry by the Director of the Western Europe’s Third Department Shahram Ghazizadeh in response to the inappropriate and interventionist positions of some Swedish officials against the Islamic Republic of Iran," a statement by the foreign ministry released on Monday read.

During the meeting with the Swedish ambassador, Iran communicated its "formal protest to the Swedish envoy and criticized the inappropriate statements, baseless accusations, and interventionist remarks made by the Swedish minister of education against the Islamic Republic of Iran."

​An investigative report by Swedish daily newspaper Expressen last month revealed that an individual who had worked for Iran's intelligence service for two years was subsequently employed as a doctoral student at Lund University. The student had not mentioned his background in Iran's intelligence service in his CV.

The report quoted the student as confirming he "worked for an institute that later turned out to be part of the intelligence service."

Reacting to the repot the Swedish Minister of Education Johan Pehrson said: "Iran is a rogue state that many Swedes have fled from. They have institutionalized misogyny, anti-Semitism and sponsor terrorism. The Swedish Security Service classifies Iran as one of the greatest security threats to Sweden. Iran not only engages in espionage and influence work, but is also interested in acquiring technology and innovations that are developed in Swedish companies and universities."

Iran's foreign ministry also said that during the meeting, Ghazizadeh also criticized Sweden for summoning Iran’s ambassador in Stockholm over the case of detained Swedish Iranian Ahmadreza Djalili on death row in Tehran.

It also stated that Ghazizadeh raised concerns over the case of Niloufar Zareh, an Iranian citizen who was killed in a school shooting in Sweden last month, and requested details on the judicial process.