Iran does not only pose a threat to Israel and the United States. The Swedish Security Service also describes how Iran, through its intelligence and security agencies, constitutes a “significant threat,” and how the regime has long conducted security-threatening activities and planned and carried out acts of violence in Sweden.
This includes intelligence gathering and mapping of opposition figures, followed by threats and pressure.
Iran and Russia, together with China, constitute the greatest security threats to Sweden. Iran also helps Russia circumvent Western sanctions through business arrangements where Iran acts as an intermediary. Iran also attempts to bypass these sanctions in order to gain access to Swedish technology and research, particularly related to its nuclear weapons program, according to the Security Service’s annual assessment.
Iran engages in this broader acquisition of Western technology and know-how because for over twenty years the country’s been subject to sanctions aimed at limiting its ability to develop and produce nuclear weapons and delivery systems, such as missiles, the Security Service goes on.
At the same time, Iran has long been active—even in Sweden—obtaining products, technology, and expertise that can be used for developing these weapons. In order to evade sanctions, civilian products which appear to have no nuclear application are acquired, but which can still be used in the development and production of nuclear weapons or missile systems.
In addition, criminal networks have reportedly been used by Iran as proxies to carry out acts of violence targeting Israeli and Jewish sites in Sweden. Both Israel’s and the United States’ military operations against Iran, as well as Iran’s responses, have increased the threat level against American, Israeli, and Jewish targets in Sweden.
In an investigation into how shelter provided by asylum is in practice used by Iran to conduct intelligence activities, threaten Iranian exiles and spread Iranian Islamist propaganda, the Doku website uncovered false claims of conversion from Islam linked to collaboration with Iranian security services.
The individuals and networks involved constitute clear security threats—both to Sweden’s national security and to the Iranian diaspora in the country, said Iran expert and political scientist Arvin Khoshnood to Doku, who conducts investigative journalism and spreads information about Islamist environments from a primarily Swedish perspective.
On regime-critical Persian-language social media, Mohammad Heidari Behnam has been described as a soldier in Iran’s intelligence service and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. That Heidari openly highlights his father’s role in the Revolutionary Guard and has frequently visited the pro-Iranian Shia mosque Imam Ali Center in Järfälla would likely not have attracted much attention—if it were not for the fact that he claims to have converted to Christianity and sought asylum in Sweden on the grounds of persecution in Iran.
“Harassed at the asylum accommodation for his Christian faith,” wrote Värmlands Folkblad on February 9, 2016, describing how Behnam Heidari was said to have become a Christian in Iran and then fled due to his religious beliefs.
The purpose of these false conversions is said to be to spy on the Iranian diaspora and to undermine those in Sweden who have undergone a genuine religious conversion.
