Maria Malmer Stenergard expresses her concern about the situation in the Middle East and the war with Iran during a meeting with journalists in the Riksdag.
She warns that this is already having and will have serious consequences for aid and weapons to Ukraine. At the same time, Russia is filling its war chest with sharply increased oil revenues.
- This will have consequences for the Swedish economy and for Ukraine. We will have to step in more than we have before, says the Foreign Minister, who believes that it is even more urgent now that more countries take responsibility and contribute more to Ukraine.
More difficult for Ukraine
The United States is expending huge quantities of missiles, weapons and resources in the war with Iran, which reduces the opportunities for European and other countries to purchase American weapons for onward delivery to Ukraine.
I think this will unfortunately be quite long-term, although it is impossible to predict how long it will be,
She says she hopes she's wrong, but that we should probably focus on months rather than weeks.
US goals unclear
It is also very worrying that the US seems to lack plans and goals for the war, says Malmer Stenergard.
The goal seems to vary from day to day and there seems to be no plan for the day after.
When asked if she believes the US's goal with the war is to democratize Iran, she answers:
I think it is very unclear what the US's motives are for their actions. We hear slightly different motives on different days. But what has been constant is that they do not want to allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons, and that is a view we share.
Iran is being radicalized
Maria Malmer Stenergard sees signs that the regime in Iran is moving in an even more extremist direction after US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
She notes that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remains in power, no popular uprisings are visible and the new leaders who have been appointed have not changed sides.
We see Iran striking back rather indiscriminately against other countries in the region, thereby drawing them into a war they did not want to be drawn into. And we see security-threatening activities increasing in the rest of the world.
