Cecilia Sala, 29, who was detained last month in Iran while on a reporting trip, was on a plane back to her home country, the Italian government announced.

An Italian journalist arrested in Iran and jailed for three weeks has been freed and is returning to Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's office said Wednesday. "The plane taking journalist Cecilia Sala home took off from Tehran a few minutes ago" following "intense work on diplomatic and intelligence channels,

Italy has summoned Iran’s ambassador to demand the immediate release of an Italian journalist detained in Tehran.

Iran warned Italy on Friday that it risked harming good bilateral relations if it bows to the "political and hostile goals" of the United States by detaining an Iranian engineer on a U.S. warrant in connection with a drone attack in Jordan last year that killed three American troops.

The fate of an Italian journalist detained in Tehran and an Iranian engineer imprisoned in Italy on a U.S. warrant grew even more intertwined Friday as the Iranian awaits possible extradition to the United States to face charges he provided drone technology to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard corps.