Cecilia Sala, 29, who was detained last month while on a reporting trip, was on a plane home, the Italian government announced.

An Italian journalist arrested and jailed in Iran since December has been freed and returned to Rome on Wednesday, even as a diplomatic spat between the two countries lingers over an Iranian held in Milan.

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

Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was freed from an Iranian prison Wednesday and was flying home, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office said. Her release came three weeks after she was detained in Tehran while working on a journalist visa. Iran had accused Sala of “violating the law of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

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.