Sweden slammed for inviting Iranian official linked to 1979 hostage crisis
Masoumeh Ebtekar acted as a spokesperson for the hostage takers in the 1979 crisis in Iran
Iran’s vice president for women and family affairs, Masoumeh Ebtekar, was invited to Sweden earlier this week, causing more than a hundred dissidents to slam the Swedish Foreign Ministry.
In a statement referring to Ebtekar’s role in the 1979 hostage crisis in Tehran, in which 53 Americans were held captive for 444 days, the dissidents criticized the invitation, saying “Mrs. Ebtekar has never expressed regret for that act. And yet the Swedish government, through Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, has invited her to Sweden.”
Calling her “an organizer and participant” in the hostage crisis where Ebtekar acted as a spokesperson for the hostage takers, the statement also said that Sweden is supporting an 'illegal act.'
“We Iranians living in democratic western countries are greatly disturbed by the total lack of human dignity in this invitation. We believe the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is supporting an illegal act, where an embassy was taken over by force and diplomats taken hostage, by inviting one of the masterminds behind that horrific act.”
Although Ebtekar has been invited by other European governments before, the dissidents came down hard on Sweden’s decision to host her and not other Iranian women who are ‘true leaders.’
“There are many distinguished Iranian women who are true leaders and are respected globally. They are human rights champions and proponents of gender equality. Sweden could have invited one of them instead.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also shared his view on the 1979 hostage crisis in a speech on Memorial Day on Tuesday.
“If I had to mark the day when terrorism began to break out onto the modern world, I would say it was in a dramatic event in Tehran 39 years ago: the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran and the capture of dozens of diplomats and civilians as hostages.”
EU and Iran
EU foreign ministers on Monday discussed how they could persuade the US not to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, but stopped short of imposing new sanctions on Tehran.
Any decision on sanctions would have to have unanimous support from all 28 EU states and so far several, including Italy and Sweden, are not convinced.
Britain, France and Germany used a meeting of the EU's 28 foreign ministers to try to build support for expanding sanctions against Iran to punish it for its ballistic missile program and its role in regional conflicts including Syria and Yemen.
They hope that by doing so they will persuade US President Donald Trump not to follow through on his threat to abandon the landmark 2015 deal to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelson said there was "a very broad majority" in favor of expanding sanctions, as the clock ticks down to a May 12 deadline imposed by Trump to "fix" the agreement.