Alireza Akhundi to Tourists: Not Traveling to Iran is the 'Least Sacrifice' for Freedom

Alireza Akhundi, an Iranian-Swedish MP, urged tourists not to travel to Iran, citing the cases of dual nationals and foreigners imprisoned by the Islamic Republic. He expressed disappointment that some individuals still choose Iran for vacations despite 'explicit warnings' from Western foreign ministries. In a bilingual tweet published on Tuesday, he used the hashtags 'Don't be a hostage' in English and 'No to regime hostage-taking' in Persian, emphasizing that the Iranian regime has a history of using hostage-taking as a policy. He stated that tourists traveling to Iran 'assist the Iranian regime in extortion and weaken our collective efforts for freedom in Iran.' Akhundi acknowledged that 'hearing this may be hard,' but stressed the harsh reality of solitary confinement, torture, or sexual assault experienced in Iranian prisons. He added, 'If we want to do something for freedom, avoiding tourism in Iran is the least sacrifice. Let’s unite and refrain from traveling to Iran under current conditions.' He referenced several dual nationals and foreigners imprisoned in Iran, highlighting the regime's practice of detaining citizens of other countries, particularly dual nationals, to use them as bargaining chips in international relations. Many Western countries, including U.S. officials, have repeatedly warned dual nationals that traveling to Iran is risky and have advised against it, even for family visits. Following the onset of last year’s widespread protests, some European countries labeled Iran as unsafe and urged their citizens to avoid travel there. Recently, Norbert Röttgen, a member of the German Christian Democratic Union, deemed promoting travel to Iran on the ZDF network as 'irresponsible.' A U.S. government official stated that there is no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens abroad, insisting that Iran must release unjustly detained Americans. The ongoing detention of American citizens is unacceptable, and the U.S. will continue its efforts to bring home any unjustly detained Americans.