Sweden Complains Over ‘False’ Iran Sanctions Report
Sweden has complained to Israel over a newspaper report which said the Nordic state had tried to block EU sanctions against Iran to protect powerhouse telecoms equipment maker Ericsson, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
The report on Sunday, in daily Haaretz, quoted an Israeli Foreign Ministry official as saying Sweden wanted to prevent a European Union decision to impose further sanctions on Iran. The sanctions were eventually agreed on Tuesday.
Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman Anders Jorle said the Israeli ambassador had been summoned on Monday.
“The reason was the somewhat odd comments from the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson,” he said. “We expressed our view on this and the reply was that they regretted the comments and that they were not an official Israeli position.”
Haaretz had quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying that if Ericsson lost a deal in Iran then other business transactions, such as in China, could suffer.
Foreign Minister Carl Bildt on Monday said the comments were a smear on Swedish policy and were “entirely wrong”.
“They must have got this from their own fairy tale factory. Sweden and Israel may have different opinions in some matters but this isn’t the way to handle our dialogue,” he said.
Ericsson, the world’s biggest telecom equipment maker with three customers in Iran – MTN Irancell, MCCI and TIC – denied having new orders in the works in the country.
“That’s a lie, it’s wrong,” Ericsson spokesman Fredrik Hallstan said. “Since the sanctions against the financial sector came into force in 2010 we don’t take any new business in Iran. We are honouring existing contracts.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
