Iran's hard-line judiciary says its Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence against a Swedish-Iranian dissident who went missing from a Turkish airport two years ago before turning up in Iranian custody accused of terrorism. Referring to Khamenei’s repeated claim that the opposition is free to criticize him, Tajzadeh asked in the letter how that is possible "if I have been sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison just for criticizing your performance in two cases, while a distinguished researcher like Saeed Madani has been sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison in two cases. The United States has said it welcomes a Chinese-brokered thaw in relations between rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia but expressed doubts that Tehran will follow through on its commitments