In a statement on Monday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said, “Following the Swedish government’s unusual move to grant citizenship to Ahmadreza Jalali, who has been convicted on security grounds, Sweden’s ambassador to Tehran was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Monday by the [ministry’s] director for consular affairs.”
“In the meeting, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s strong protest was conveyed to the Swedish ambassador over the Swedish government’s granting citizenship to a person who has confessed to spying for Mossad and the Zionist regime [of Israel] and complicity in the assassination of Iranian scientists,” Qassemi added.
According to the spokesman, the Swedish ambassador was also reminded that the citizenship granted to Jalali is not acceptable under the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran and that he is still considered an Iranian.
“So, we regard the move by the Swedish government as unusual, questionable and unfriendly, and other countries have no right to interfere in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s domestic affairs under any circumstances,” Qassemi said.
He said no country grants a second citizenship to a criminal who has confessed to murder and is behind bars.
“The Swedish government’s recent move was very strange, unwarranted and questionable,” the spokesman noted.
At the end of the meeting, the Swedish ambassador said that he would convey Tehran’s strong protest to the Swedish government and officials.
Jalali has been convicted of having cooperated with the Israeli spy agency Mossad and having disclosed the information of around thirty individuals to them. Part of that information was related to two Iranian nuclear scientists and led to their murder.
