STOCKHOLM: An Iranian journalist covering Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s Nordic tour has fled the official delegation and applied for residency in Sweden, officials here said Tuesday.
The Swedish Migration Agency said Amir-Tohid Fazel, a political reporter for Iran’s ultra-conservative news agency Moj, had “applied for a residence permit in Sweden on 21 August 2019.”
It provided no further details.
Fazel was traveling with Zarif’s delegation as part of an international tour to Finland, Sweden and Norway and other countries.
On August 20, “when I was in Sweden, one of my colleagues in Tehran contacted me via Internet and said ‘four plainclothes came to the news agency with a warrant for your arrest’,” he said in an interview with Swedish television SVT.
He had recently published a list of names of Iranian officials who allegedly hold dual citizenship in countries the Iranian government views as “hostile states.”
Iran does not recognize dual citizenship and refuses to provide consular aid to Iranian dual nationals.
“The Iranian government officially announced that it will file a complaint,” Fazel told SVT.
The day after his colleague in Iran tipped him off, while still in Sweden, Fazel managed to slip away from the delegation.
“It was very difficult because of the 48 bodyguards that were there to provide security for Dr. Zarif and keep an eye on the reporters,” he said.
The journalist refused to be drawn on his political affiliation.
Zarif has been on a world diplomatic tour that kicked off in Kuwait on August 17, before visiting the Nordic countries and France, where he held meetings on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Biarritz.
Iran occupies spot 170, out of 180, in the 2019 Reporters Without Borders rankings of countries’ press freedoms.
Iran has arrested and imprisoned a number of Iranians with dual nationality, in what Western governments have denounced as a ruthless policy to exercise diplomatic pressure.
Iran journalist flees Zarif delegation to stay in Sweden
Iran journalist flees Zarif delegation to stay in Sweden
- The Swedish Migration Agency said Amir-Tohid Fazel, a political reporter for Iran’s ultra-conservative news agency Moj, had applied for a residence permit
- Fazel was traveling with Zarif’s delegation as part of an international tour to Finland, Sweden and Norway and other countries
Philippines eyes closer cooperation on advanced defense tech with UAE
- Philippine-UAE defense agreement is Manila’s first with a Gulf country
- Philippines says new deal will also help modernize the Philippine military
MANILA: The Philippines is seeking stronger cooperation with the UAE on advanced defense technologies under their new defense pact — its first such deal with a Gulf country — the Department of National Defense said on Friday.
The Memorandum of Understanding on Defense Cooperation was signed during President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s visit to Abu Dhabi earlier this week, which also saw the Philippines and the UAE signing a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, marking Manila’s first free trade pact with a Middle Eastern nation.
The Philippines-UAE defense agreement “seeks to deepen cooperation on advanced defense technologies and strengthen the security relations” between the two countries, DND spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arsenio Andolong said in a statement.
The MoU “will serve as a platform for collaboration on unmanned aerial systems, electronic warfare, and naval systems, in line with the ongoing capability development and modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” he added.
It is also expected to further military relations through education and training, intelligence and security sharing, and cooperation in the fields of anti-terrorism, maritime security, and peacekeeping operations.
The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has described security and defense as “very promising fields” in Philippine-UAE ties, pointing to Abu Dhabi being the location of Manila’s first defense attache office in the Middle East.
The UAE is the latest in a growing list of countries with defense and security deals with the Philippines, which also signed a new defense pact with Japan this week.
“I would argue that this is more significant than it looks on first read, precisely because it’s the Philippines’ first formal defense cooperation agreement with a Gulf state. It signals diversification,” Rikard Jalkebro, associate professor at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi, told Arab News.
“Manila is widening its security partnerships beyond its traditional circles at a time when strategic pressure is rising in the South China Sea, and the global security environment is (volatile) across regions.”
Though the MoU is not an alliance and does not create mutual defense obligations, it provides a “framework for the practical stuff that matters,” including access, training pathways, procurement discussions and structured channels” for security cooperation, he added.
“For the UAE, the timing also makes sense, seeing that Abu Dhabi is no longer only a defense buyer; it’s increasingly a producer and exporter, particularly in areas like UAS (unmanned aerial systems) and enabling technologies. That opens a new lane for Manila to explore capability-building, technology transfer, and industry-to-industry links,” Jalkebro said.
The defense deal also matters geopolitically, as events in the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific region have ripple effects on global stability and commerce.
“So, a Philippines–UAE defense framework can be read as a pragmatic hedge, strengthening resilience and options without formally taking sides,” Jalkebro said.
