The case of the prominent Italian journalist detained in Iran is a test for Italy’s government as it gets caught up in Iran’s shadow war with the U.S.

The family fears that the media debate could complicate the young woman's situation in Iran.

Iran's state media say an Italian journalist has been arrested on charges of violating the Islamic Republic's laws.

Italian journalist Cecilia Sala has been detained in Tehran, Italy’s foreign ministry said in a statement Friday. She was in Iran on a reporting trip.

Westerners jailed by the Islamic Republic, who are rightly an international issue, are but a fraction of the more than 8,000 non-Iranians jailed in Iran, 95 per cent of them migrants from Afghanistan.

Complicating matters are indications that Sala's fate has become intertwined with that of an Iranian man who was detained in Italy on 16 December, just three days before her arrest in Tehran. #EuropeN

Italy is working “tirelessly” to bring home a journalist who has been under arrest in Iran for more than a week, the country said on Friday.

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.

Italy is working to secure the release of journalist Cecilia Sala, who's been detained in Iran since Dec. 19 for allegedly violating its laws.