Blinken didn't protest against Abedini's release says FM

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 16 - Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Thursday denied a report published by Milan daily Corriere della Sera claiming US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had protested against the release on Sunday by Italian authorities of Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, an Iranian engineer arrested on December 16 at Milan's Malpensa airport on a US warrant.
    Blinken's alleged protest "is a totally unfounded report", said Tajani.
    "I spoke with Blinken during the Quintet meeting ahead of the mission in Syria and Lebanon" last Friday, said the foreign minister, referring to meeting of the so-called Quintet - United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy - also attended by the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas.
    Tajani went on to say that allegations of "interventions by private parties" in the case, already denied by them, "are groundless, calling such reports "fantasy reconstructions more worthy of a novel than a newspaper report".
    Iran has denied a New York Times report that Elon Musk helped secure the release of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala by contacting Iran's ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeed Iravani.
    According to the Isna news agency, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei described the report as "a media fabrication and a fantasy".
    Sala, 29, a freelance reporter for Il Foglio newspaper and a podcaster at Chora News, returned to Italy last week after being released by Iran following her arrest in Tehran on December 19.
    (ANSA).