Sweden has expelled an Iranian embassy employee and summoned the country’s ambassador for allegedly threatening Jewish and Israeli interests in Sweden, the country’s justice minister said on Wednesday.
“We know that Iran, over a long period of time, has conducted activities that threaten security in and against Sweden, targeting both individuals who oppose the Iranian regime and various Jewish and Israeli interests in our country,” Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said in a statement to AFP. “This has, among other things, been done by making use of criminal networks.”
The Iranian embassy did not immediately respond to AFP‘s request for comment, the news agency reported.
The Swedish Security Service (Sapo) has previously accused Iran of recruiting criminal gang members to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli and other interests in Sweden, a claim Iran has denied.
“When it comes to what has prompted the government’s announcement today, I am not in a position to go into any details, as it concerns our intelligence work,” Sapo spokesman Jonathan Svensson told AFP.
“We can confirm that Iran continues to engage in activities that pose security threats in and against Sweden. This includes, among other things, attempts to use proxies, such as criminal networks, to carry out attacks or acts of violence,” he said.
In June 2024, two containers packed with plastic explosives were found outside the offices of Israeli military technology firm Elbit Systems in Gothenburg. In October that year, a 13-year-old boy discharged a firearm at the entrance to an Elbit Systems facility.
A Swedish court in April 2025 sentenced four teenagers to prison for recruiting the boy to carry out the shooting.
In May 2025, gunshots were fired outside the Israeli embassy.
Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said on Wednesday that the embassy employee was asked to leave over “activities that are not compatible with the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.”
The U.S. Justice Department announced in May an eight-count indictment against Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, an Iraqi-Iranian national accused of directing terrorist attacks, including plots targeting Jewish sites in New York and London.
Federal prosecutors charged Al-Saadi, 32, who was transferred to the United States earlier this year, with terrorism-related offenses linked to Kata’ib Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The department alleges that Al-Saadi helped coordinate nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks in Europe and the United States, including seeking out operatives to attack a Manhattan synagogue.
