Iranian warship intercepts US military drones
Fox News chief Washington correspondent Mike Emanuel reports on an Iranian warship intercepting American drones only to return them the following morning on 'Special Report.'
JERUSALEM – As the Biden administration seeks to temporarily restrict Tehran from building an atomic bomb, a damning new Swedish intelligence report accuses the Islamic Republic of Iran of illegal attempts to secure nuclear weapons technology in the Scandinavian nation during 2021.
The Swedish document places new question marks over the efficacy of the controversial Iran nuclear deal that rewards the clerical regime with up to $275 billion in economic benefits during the first year of an agreement and as much as $1 trillion by 2030, according to one estimate.
The formal name for the intelligence report—the Swedish Security Yearbook—revealed "Iran also conducts industrial espionage such as primarily aimed at Swedish high-tech industry and Swedish products that can be used in a nuclear weapons program."
The 80-page intelligence report which lists national security threats to Sweden noted "Iranian intelligence officers act, among other things, under diplomatic cover in Sweden."
President Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Aug. 29, 2022. In a rare news conference Monday marking his first year in office, Raisi warned that any roadmap to restore Tehran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers must see international inspectors end their probe on man-made uranium particles found at undeclared sites in the country. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)
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In response to a Fox News Digital press query, a spokesman for the Swedish Security Service said, "The Swedish Security Service considers Iran to be one of the three countries that poses the gravest security threat to Sweden and Swedish interests. The other two being Russia and China."
When asked about the nature of Iran's efforts to secure illicit nuclear weapons technology, the spokesman said, "As a national security service much of our information derives from classified intelligence. We are unable to go in to more detail other than is stated in the Yearbook."
Iranian-Swedish human rights activist Laleh Bazargan told Fox News Digital "The Islamic regime of Iran is not a normal government" and the regime "is built on the foundation of killing dissidents, hostage taking, bombings, terrorists attacks, and creating chaos."
A huge mural of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei Iran's Supreme Leader painted next to a smaller one of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (R) seen in Tehran, Iran. The message on the wall reads "The power and influence and dignity of America in the world is on the fall and extermination" and on top of the building, another slogan reads "We are standing till the end". (Photo by Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)
Bazargan added "This regime is a bully sitting on lucrative oil and gas resources, and because of it the free world has been negotiating and accepting its rough actions. Enough is enough. Europe and the U.S. must understand that this regime is a danger to world security and must be crushed the same way Hitler was crushed."
Bazargan testified in a Stockholm court against the former Iranian regime official, Hamid Nouri, who was convicted in July of war crimes in connection with the mass murder of political prisoners in Iran in 1988.
The Trump administration sanctioned Iran’s current President Ebrahim Raisi for his role in the mass execution of 5,000 Iranian prisoners in 1988. The theocratic state executed Bazargan’s brother, Bijan, during the waves of killings in 1988 to wipe out dissidents.
The Swedish intelligence reports added new evidence to the claims that Iran’s regime is working on a nuclear weapons program. The Swedish government released the report in March and Fox News Digital translated sections on Iran’s covert efforts to obtain illicit nuclear technology and its surveillance in the northern European country.
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President Trump has said the Iran deal fails to stop Tehran from building a nuclear weapons device and simply pumped billions into Iran’s terror-sponsoring system. As a result, Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018. Biden believes an American re-entry into the deal will help curb Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions.
The U.S. State Department has designated Iran’s regime as the world leading state-sponsor of terrorism.
In June, Fox News Digital first reported on a German intelligence report, declaring that Iran ramped up its efforts to obtain technology for its atomic weapons program.
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According to the German report, "The German domestic intelligence agencies were able to identify a significant increase in the indications of proliferation-related procurement attempts by Iran for its nuclear program."
The German intelligence report by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution defines proliferation as "the procurement of know-how and products for the development and production of weapons of mass destruction and delivery technologies."