IRAN INTERNATIONAL -- "Iran is using organized and violent criminal gangs to carry out serious attacks within Sweden," Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Sunday, calling it part of "hybrid attacks and proxy wars" on the Scandinavian country's soil.

“Sweden is not at war. But there is no peace either," he said on the opening day of Sweden’s three-day annual Folk och Försvars (people and defense) conference in Sälen, northern Sweden.

The Swedish prime minister noted that “true peace requires freedom and the absence of serious conflicts between countries. But we and our neighbors are exposed to hybrid attacks, carried out not with robots and soldiers, but with computers, money, disinformation and the risk of sabotage.”

Those who want peace, he said, must “be prepared for war”.

Last year, Sweden's security service said that the Iranian government had been using criminal networks within Sweden to carry out violent acts against other states, groups and individuals, specifically Israel.

Tehran enlisted criminals to carry out armed attacks on Israeli embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen, a Swedish police source and another informed source told Iran International in October 2024.

In May, Sweden arrested two teenage boys - aged 14 and 15 - after a shooting near the Israeli embassy. The Swedish intelligence agency at the time accused Tehran of recruiting gang members to attack Israeli interests in the Scandinavian country.