Iran welcomes return of national held in Italy in spat involving the US

The Iranian Foreign Ministry and the judiciary have confirmed that Iranian citizen Mohammad Abedini, who was arrested in Italy at the request of the United States, has been released. The judiciary's official news agency, Mizan, stated on Sunday that Abedini was returned to Tehran after his arrest due to a "misunderstanding."

The report, also broadcast on state television, stated that his release was achieved after negotiations between the Iranian and Italian intelligence services. Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ismail Baghaei, welcomed the release of the Iranian citizen in a brief statement. Washington accuses him of involvement in the January 2024 drone attack on a U.S. outpost in Jordan that killed three American soldiers. He emphasized that the Foreign Ministry will defend the rights of Iranian citizens abroad.

Abedini was arrested on December 16 under a U.S. warrant. He and another Iranian were accused of providing Iran with drone technology used to attack U.S. military bases. He was scheduled to appear in a Milan court on Wednesday to address his request for house arrest while awaiting extradition to the U.S. However, the Italian Ministry of Justice requested that the Court of Appeals revoke his arrest warrant, arguing that it "did not correspond to any crime recognized by Italian law."

Three days after Abedini's arrest, Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was detained in Tehran while traveling on a regular journalist visa and accused of "violating the laws of the Islamic Republic." The writer and podcaster was released from solitary confinement in Tehran's Evin prison last week and returned home, where she was greeted by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. Meloni had previously made a personal visit to Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida a few days earlier, where the former U.S. president called her a "wonderful woman."

Tehran has dismissed Western speculation that the journalist's arrest was linked to Rome's detention of Abedini at the request of the United States. Iranian authorities have been accused for decades of using some prisoners as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West. Furthermore, a Swiss citizen accused of espionage died on Thursday in a prison in Semnan province, Iran. An Iranian-American journalist was sentenced to 10 years in prison by an Iranian court last month for "collaborating with the hostile American government."

Iran has also accused the West, particularly the United States, of targeting its citizens under Washington's unilateral sanctions and blacklists, many of which were imposed after then-President Trump abandoned Iran's nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. Abedini's release on Sunday comes as Iran and the region remain on high alert amid the ongoing fallout from Israel's war on Gaza, just days before Trump's second term as president.

Senior commanders of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and army have been warning the U.S. and Israel this week against attacking Iran's nuclear or energy infrastructure. On Sunday, Iran's armed forces completed a large-scale military exercise designed to practice layered defense of the Fordow and Khondab nuclear facilities using various missile defense and radar systems. As part of the exercise that began last week and will continue for several weeks, the IRGC also simulated defending the country's main nuclear facility in Natanz from attack using fighter jets, missiles, and bunker buster bombs.

Iran's armed forces also unveiled another "missile city" this week, displaying hundreds of ballistic missiles, which commanders said would be ready to launch at Israel and U.S. bases in the region if Iran were attacked. As part of a show of force, Iran also held a demonstration of 110,000 people in Tehran this week, after losing a major part of its regional axis of resistance with the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Iran's nuclear program could also take a different path, with the Trump administration's position expected to determine the balance of relations in 2025, while the West continues to accuse Tehran of supplying weapons to Russia in the war against Ukraine.