An Italian journalist detained in Iran whose fate became intertwined with that of an Iranian engineer wanted by the United States said she assumed she would have been held much longer and said her boyfriend's contact with Elon Musk might have been "fundamental" to her release.

An Italian journalist detained in Iran whose fate became intertwined with that of an Iranian engineer wanted by the United States says she assumed she would have been held much longer.

The Italian journalist was released soon after Elon Musk met with an Iranian ambassador, officials in Iran said. So was an Iranian detained in Italy who was wanted by the U.S.

Italian media linked his case to the detention of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, who was seized in Tehran three days after Abedini was arrested. She returned home on Wednesday. Iran dismissed allegations it had imprisoned her to pressure Rome to release Abedini.

After three weeks of negotiations that Premier Giorgia Meloni called “diplomatic triangulation,” Sala went home and Abedini returned to Iran. Sala, a journalist with the Chora Media podcast ...

Italy’s Giorgia Meloni has emerged as the US president’s favourite EU interlocutor, with hopes growing she could talk him out of a trade war.

British Airways and ITA Airways are to resume flights to Tel Aviv as tensions in the region ease. Wizz Air and the Lufthansa Group are also returning to Israel.

Italian journalist Cecilia Sala has told how Elon Musk played a pivotal role in her release from an Iranian detention center.

She said she had read that Italy had arrested an Iranian engineer three days earlier at the request of the United States. The engineer, Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, was wanted for his alleged role in providing drone technology for Iran that was used in an attack that killed three American soldiers in Jordan.

Russia and Iran signed a new treaty on Friday underpinning their economic and military cooperation, in what both sides cast as a major milestone in their relations.

The New York Times had reported that Musk had helped secure Sala's release, at the request of her boyfriend, by reaching out to Iran's ambassador to the United Nations.

Amnesty International reported severe systematic human rights violations in Azerbaijan on Thursday. The report reflects the lack of improvement and the systemic nature of the abuses, including unjustified restrictions on the right to freedom of expression ...