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Iranian citizen plight in Sweden

Iran's foreign minister has asked for the immediate release of an Iranian citizen jailed in Sweden over alleged rights abuses. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the comment in a late Tuesday phone call with his Swedish counterpart Ann Linde. He noted that the longstanding relations between the two countries should not be affected by propaganda and baseless measures of a criminal terrorist group. Amir-Abdollahian said Iranian citizen Hamid Nouri is in Sweden’s jail over groundless accusations leveled against him by anti-Iran Mujahedin-e-Khalq terrorist group. The Swedish foreign minister, for her part, said her country’s government and judiciary would not be swayed by the group’s anti-Iran propaganda. Hamid Nouri is accused of rights violations against members of the anti-Iran terror group in the 1980s. Swedish prosecutors have requested life imprisonment for him. Iran says the allegations against Nouri are baseless and his trial is a political show.

Letter to Hajj pilgrims

As the annual Hajj rituals reach their climax, a number of Palestinian prisoners have written a letter, asking the pilgrims not to forget them in their prayers. The prisoners asked the pilgrims to wish them steadfastness and victory in the face of difficulties. They also asked the pilgrims to pray for the liberation of al-Quds from the Israeli regime’s occupation. Four of the letter’s writers were among the six Palestinians who staged a jailbreak from an Israeli prison last September. The pilgrims will start performing the rituals in the holy city of Mecca on Thursday. About one million Muslims are expected to attend the 2022 Hajj pilgrimage after two years of disruption caused by the COVID pandemic.

No Nordic NATO bases

NATO says it has no plan to set up bases in Sweden and Finland once they complete the membership process that was launched on Tuesday. The alliance’s deputy secretary general says NATO is not going to send troops to the two countries, as they are capable of defending themselves. The remarks came shortly after NATO members signed the accession protocol for the two countries. Now it is up to parliaments in all 30 member states to ratify membership of Oslo and Helsinki. The two Nordic states requested to join NATO after Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine in February. Russia has repeatedly expressed its opposition to NATO's expansion. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned last week that Moscow will respond symmetrically if NATO deploys troops or infrastructure to Sweden and Finland.


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