Sweden – Global Bar, Nov. 27, 2025
This is an analysis. The opinions expressed are the authors’ own.
If the Ministry for Foreign Affairs were a country, it would be one of the world’s most isolationist and least engaged societies.
Many years ago, during the official investigation into the fate of the Swedish diplomat and Holocaust rescuer Raoul Wallenberg in Russia, researchers used to gather to discuss how the investigation could move forward. The group was convinced that if they could just get Swedish officials to understand why it was important to approach the issue in more creative ways, it might yield valuable new insights.
It took several years before it became clear that the seemingly slow handling by Swedish diplomats was not due to a lack of understanding of the value of the proposed measures—or due to bureaucratic obstacles. They simply chose not to act.
An inherent conflict of interest
Above all, family members themselves have experienced how closed off the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs has become. Representatives of the public—human rights activists, journalists, even members of parliament and legal counsel—are kept at arm’s length. Obscuring, avoiding, delaying, feigned ignorance, and—when nothing else works—referencing Sweden’s strict confidentiality rules are all tools used to avoid direct contact and cooperation.
Part of the problem, of course, is that Swedish diplomats primarily represent Sweden’s national interests, which creates an inherent conflict of interest. Families have only one goal—to free their loved ones. Diplomats must consider many other factors, making them naturally cautious and more inclined to settle for partial solutions.
The latest, most cynical example is the toothless agreement Sweden reached with the Islamic Republic of Iran, despite having a strong bargaining chip in the form of former Iranian official Hamid Nouri. Nouri was arrested and sentenced to life in prison in Sweden in 2022 for his role in the mass executions of thousands of political prisoners in Iran in 1988. The sentence was upheld in December 2023.
Swedish officials either did not understand or chose to ignore the immense value Hamid Nouri held for the Islamic Republic. Instead, they entered into a limited agreement, thereby leaving behind a Swedish citizen—the doctor and researcher Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali—as well as possibly several other European and foreign hostages in the process.
Djalali was arrested by Iranian intelligence agents in 2016, charged with espionage. He has denied all accusations. After months of torture, he was sentenced to death in 2017 in a sham trial. Despite this, the issue of returning Nouri only became a serious topic of discussion when Swedish EU diplomat Johan Floderus was detained in Iran in 2022—and Sweden quickly proposed adjusting its legislation. In the end, the Swedish government granted Hamid Nouri clemency—a purely pragmatic and highly controversial decision.
It is fairly obvious what caused the government to change its stance: had Floderus been seriously harmed or died in detention, the political cost at home would have been high. In the case of Ahmadreza Djalali, the situation was not perceived as equally urgent. To say the least, the Swedish government’s actions revealed a striking double standard regarding dual nationals, such as Dr. Djalali.
