Last week, 61-year-old Hamid Noury was sentenced to life in prison for grave crimes against international law and murder for participating in the executions of political prisoners in Iran in 1988.
Iran’s government has previously shown its dissatisfaction with the trial and on Wednesday the country recalled its ambassador to Sweden.
– It is the clearest and strongest mark you can make diplomatically. The only next step is to expel Sweden’s ambassador. This is as far as they can go in diplomatic language to mark their displeasure, says Rouzbeh Parsi, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at the Foreign Policy Institute.
According to him, this could affect Sweden’s opportunities for talks with Iran regarding the imprisoned and death-sentenced Swedish researcher Ahmadreza Djalali.
– It often happens via the ambassador. The fact that he is not here means that that communication will not be able to be managed as smoothly.
“The relationships in a valley”
At the same time, Rouzbeh Parsi points out that Sweden has so far had relatively good relations with Iran, which have now suffered damage.
– They are definitely in a valley and not in a peak. It has a lot to do with the fact that Ahmadreza Djalali is in prison in Iran, sentenced to death. It is Sweden’s problem with Iran, and Iran’s problem with Sweden is this person who has been convicted of war crimes in a Swedish court, he says and continues:
– Sweden has nevertheless succeeded more than other EU countries in maintaining some kind of relationship with Iran. Regardless of how badly things have gone, we try to maintain the nuclear technology agreement of which the EU is an important component. At the same time, Sweden is a country that criticizes Iran for violations of human rights, it has not always been gold and green forests.