A Jewish community leader has started speaking out about a plot to kill him that was foiled in 2021.

Aron Verständig, chair of the Official Council of Swedish Jewish communities, told Radio Sweden about Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sending two sleeper agents—couple Mahdi Ramezani and Fereshteh Sanaeifarid—who were activated after they had lived in the Scandinavian country for five years.

Ramezani and Sanaeifard were arrested in 2021 with plans to kill two other Swedish Jews.

Verständig has hesitated to speak about the threat to his life until now. “I was born a Jew I will remain a Jew for the rest of my life, and I can choose to sort of hide under a rock or I can choose to be the person who I am and that’s what I’ve chosen,” he said.

“I think that what Iran wants to do is to harm Israel, and I think it’s very difficult for them to do these kinds of things in Israel,” Verständig said. “So instead they are, I mean, randomly choosing people who have some kind of official position in the Jewish diaspora and trying to create fear.”

On Jan. 31, a bomb was found outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm. “We thank the Swedish authorities for their swift response. We will not be intimidated by terror,” stated Ziv Nevo Kulman, Israel’s ambassador to Sweden.

In February 2023, the Jewish Chronicle reported that Iran had developed plans to murder Jewish leaders globally if Israel attacked the Islamic regime.

Image - Rosenbad, in central Stockholm, has been the seat of the country's government since 1981. Credit: Holger.Ellgaard via Wikimedia Commons.