Sweden and Serbia Urge Citizens to Leave Iran Immediately
The governments of Sweden and Serbia have called on their citizens in Iran to leave the country immediately. The appeals were issued after United States President Donald Trump threatened military action over the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme.
The Serbian government had already asked Serbian nationals in mid-January to leave Iran and avoid travelling there, as Iranian authorities launched a deadly crackdown on mass protest movements.
“Due to the deteriorating security situation, citizens of the Republic of Serbia are advised against travelling to Iran in the near future,” the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in its latest statement published on its website on Friday evening into Saturday morning local time.
“All persons currently in Iran are advised to leave the country as soon as possible,” it added, as reported by the AFP news agency on Saturday (21/2/2026).
Separately, Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard posted on social media platform X, issuing “an urgent appeal to Swedish citizens in Iran to leave the country immediately”.
The Iranian government said on Friday (20/2) that it hoped to reach a swift agreement with the United States regarding Tehran’s nuclear programme, which has long been a source of dispute between the two hostile nations.
However, Trump stated that he was “considering” limited military strikes against Iran should negotiations prove fruitless. Trump had previously ordered a major naval force build-up in the Middle East, aimed at pressuring Tehran.
On Friday (20/2) local time, the US aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford — the world’s largest aircraft carrier — was spotted entering the Mediterranean Sea. The vessel had been ordered by Trump to deploy to the Middle East as part of a massive military build-up amid tensions with Iran.
The aircraft carrier was seen passing through the Strait of Gibraltar — which connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean — in photographs taken from the Gibraltar side of the strait.
The carrier is set to join another US aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, along with its escort warships, which had already arrived in the Middle East region.