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PARIS — In a further sign of strained bilateral relations, the Swedish parliament adopted on Wednesday a proposal by its Foreign Affairs Committee calling on the government to push an EU decision to blacklist the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The Swedish parliament urged the government in Stockholm to work for a consensus within the EU to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
A similar resolution was adopted by the European Parliament in Brussels last January calling on EU leadership to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization. At the time, EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell argued that the EU can only proceed with such a move if at least one EU member country designates first the IRGC as such. European diplomats told Al-Monitor at the time that such a move was unlikely, as it would generate an immediate severing of ties on Iran’s part with the country in question.
While not binding, the Swedish decision received large support from most of the parties in parliament. Still, the Swedish government is not expected to adopt the resolution and blacklist the IRGC.
The decision by the Swedish parliament followed the execution last Friday in Tehran of dual Iranian-Swedish national Habib Chaab, convicted of leading the Arab separatist group Harakat al-Nidal (the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz), which is accused of leading terror attacks in the southwest of the country. According to Iranian authorities, Chaab helped carry out several attacks, including one on an IRGC military parade in Ahvaz in 2018 that killed 25 people.
Relations between Stockholm and Tehran have been tense for several years now over human rights issues. Thus, over the years, several Iranian opposition figures and activists have found political asylum in Sweden. More so, on July 2022, via the principle of universal jurisdiction, a Swedish court sentenced to life in prison former Iranian assistant prosecutor Hamid Noury, convicted of war crimes and murder committed in 1988.
Another incident that stoked tensions between Sweden and Iran was the burning last January of a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm by extreme right-wing activist Rasmus Paludan. Iran's Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the incident, arguing it aimed to incite hatred against Muslims. Thousands of people in Iran, as well as in Lebanon, Iraq and other Muslim countries, protested the decision by Swedish authorities to enable the burning.
Bilateral tensions increased since the outbreak of demonstrations in the country and the killing of activist Mahsa Amini in September of last year. Swedish politicians and human rights advocates have strongly condemned the Iranian regime, and the Swedish government has been active in pushing the EU to sanction Iranian figures for breaching human rights.
The execution of Chaab generated a deep crisis in relations between Stockholm and Tehran. Chaab had been living in exile in Sweden for several years until 2020 when he was abducted from Istanbul by Iranian agents and brought to Tehran to stand trial. His execution generated worldwide condemnation. Sweden's Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said that his government had repeatedly urged Tehran to avoid executing Chaab.
"The death penalty is an inhuman and irreversible punishment, and Sweden, together with the rest of the EU, condemns its application under all circumstances," said Billstrom.
Almost all of the European ministers, Borrell, British Foreign Minister James Cleverly and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken issued separate condemnations over the execution.
"In a call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abdollahian, I strongly condemned the execution of Swedish-Iranian national Habib Chaab and asked Iran not to execute German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd,’’ tweeted Borrell.
Last January, Iran executed Iranian-British dual national Alireza Akbari, convicted of spying for the UK — an allegation he had denied. German-Iranian dual national Jamshid Sharmahd was convicted and sentenced to death last April over his alleged involvement in a 2008 deadly bomb attack at a mosque in Shiraz. The government in Berlin has been constantly urging Tehran to cancel the death sentence.
On April 6, French Minister Catherine Colonna met in China with her Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, reiterating Paris’ demand for the immediate release of six French nationals detained arbitrarily by Iran. The French Foreign Ministry told Al-Monitor on Thursday that no other meetings or phone calls between top French and Iranian officials have taken place since.
