Italian journalist detained in Iran says she expected to be held longer and praises Musk's role
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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.
In her first televised interview since her Jan. 8 release, Cecilia Sala referred to the three-nation negotiation that resulted in her freedom after 21 days in detention. Sala, 29, was arrested in Tehran just days after Italy detained an Iranian national, Mohammad Abedini, on a U.S. warrant and their fates became intertwined. 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 platform and Il Foglio daily, said her boyfriend Daniele Ranieri had contacted Musk’s Italy representative, Andrea Stroppa, after noting a report that Musk had met with Iran’s U.N. ambassador, suggesting he had contacts with Tehran. The United States and Iran don’t have diplomatic relations.
“You understand that it’s a case that concerns Iran, Italy, and the United States, so Elon Musk becomes a fundamental person,” Sala said on the Sunday talk show “Che Tempo Che Fa” (What the Weather's Like"). “The only response Daniele got from Andrea Stroppa was ‘he is informed.’".
