Talks over a long period without results. According to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, it was one reason why the government decided to release Hamid Noury in exchange for Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi.
We assessed that the avenues were exhausted, he says to SR's "Good Morning World".
In the programme, Ulf Kristersson provides a background as to why the two Swedes were released. One was that the life sentence against Hamid Noury had gained legal force and that it was thus possible to make an exchange.
Another was that the contacts with Iran had not yielded anything since Johan Floderus was arrested two years ago.
To just continue as before and have diplomatic talks that lead nowhere and hope that it would somehow, in an unclear future, lead somewhere. We assessed that the avenues were exhausted.
Sweden failed to negotiate the release of a third Swede, Ahmadreza Djalali, who has been imprisoned since 2016, something for which the government has received criticism, including from his wife.
I have very great respect for her disappointment, but do not quite understand the criticism. The alternative would have been to leave the two Swedes who can now come home, says Ulf Kristersson.
