Tehran warns Rome bilateral ties at risk if detained Iranian not released from prison

Iran has warned Italy that it risks harming bilateral relations if it bows to the "political and hostile goals" of the United States by detaining an Iranian engineer on a US warrant in connection with a drone attack in Jordan last year that killed three American troops.

Tehran issued the warning to the Italian ambassador to Iran, Paola Amadei, who was summoned to the foreign ministry, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The meeting took place a day after Italy summoned the Iranian ambassador over the detention of the Italian journalist Cecilia Sala in Tehran.

The back-to-back diplomatic summonses underscored how a three-nation tangle over the fates of the two prisoners was becoming more complicated for Italy, which is a traditional ally of Washington but also maintains good relations with Tehran.

Mohammad Abedini was arrested by Italian authorities at Milan's Malpensa airport on a US warrant on 16 December.

The US Justice Department accuses him and another Iranian citizen of supplying Iran with the drone technology that was used in a January 2024 attack on a US outpost in Jordan that killed three American troops.

Three days later, the Italian reporter for the Il Foglio daily paper, Cecilia Sala, was arrested in Tehran.

She had arrived in the country on 13 December on a journalist visa and was arrested on charges of violating the laws of the Islamic Republic, IRNA said.

Il Foglio said Sala is being held in Tehran’s Evin Prison, notorious for holding dissidents.

Italian commentators have speculated that Iran is holding Sala as a bargaining chip to ensure Abedini's release.

According to IRNA, a foreign ministry official, Majid Nili Ahmadabadi, told Paola Amadei that Rome's continued detention of Abedini was an "illegal act that