Iran–Switzerland relations

Iran–Switzerland relations

Iran	Switzerland

Iranian embassy at Bern, Switzerland

Iranian-Swiss relations are foreign relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Swiss Confederation.

Switzerland has had a consulate in Tehran since 1919 which was raised to the status of embassy in 1936 and also represents the interests of the United States in the Iranian capital Tehran.

History

The Shah's education at the Swiss Institute "Le Rosey"

As a child, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran attended Institut Le Rosey, a Swiss boarding school, completing his studies there in 1935.

1979 Revolution

Switzerland becomes the "protecting power" of the United States in Iran after the Iranian Revolution of 1979.

Iran–Iraq war

Beginning in 1984, victims of the Iran–Iraq War received medical treatment in Switzerland, while Swiss companies were doing multi-billion dollar business with Iraq at the same time. After the severe earthquakes of 1997 and 2003, Switzerland helped to rebuild the infrastructure. Cooperation on the national level to prevent natural catastrophes was initiated in 2006.

Murder of Kazem Rajavi

Ali Fallahian, an Iranian politician and cleric who served as a member of the 3rd Assembly of Experts of the IRI and as the Minister of Intelligence of Islamic Republic of Iran in cabinet of President Hashemi Rafsanjani was charged by a Swiss court^[1][2][3] with masterminding the assassination of Kazem Rajavi, a brother of Mujahedin-e Khalq leader Massoud Rajavi, near Geneva in broad daylight by several agents on April 24, 1990.^[4]

Crypto AG and espionage case

In 1992, Hans Buehler an employee of Swiss firm Crypto AG was detained in Iran on charges of espionage. He was later released by the Iranian authorities after the firm paid a 1 million dollar bond.^[5] Soon after Buehler's release Crypto AG dismissed him and charged him the $1m. Swiss media and the German magazine Der Spiegel took up his case in 1994, pursuing the question of whether Crypto's machines had in fact been rigged by Western intelligence (namely the NSA).^[6][7][8]

Friedrich Tinner, the Iranian nuclear program and the CIA

Friedrich Tinner is a Swiss engineer, connected with the Khan network trafficking in the proliferation of nuclear materials and know-how to Pakistan, Iran, Libya, and North Korea. He has been connected in particular with gas centrifuges used for isotopic enrichment of uranium.^[9] In May 2008, the President of the Swiss Confederation, Pascal Couchepin announced that the Tinner files, believed to number around 30,000 documents, had been shredded.^[10] It is alleged that this was a cover-up, to hide the involvement of Urs Tinner with the CIA.^[11][12]

Swiss diplomat arrested on sexual charges

In February 2009, the Iranian police arrested Marco Kämpf, the Swiss diplomat acting as the First Secretary of the US Interests, on sex charges.^[13][14]

Human rights dialogue and the 2009 Swiss vote on minarets

The two countries have been engaged in a human rights dialogue since 2003 and in discussions on migration since 2005. Following a constitutional amendment banning the construction of new minarets in Switzerland in 2009, Iran described the Swiss vote as "Islamophobic" and a blow to religious freedom.^[15]

Security incidences at the Iranian embassy in Bern

In November 2011, Swiss police investigated two minor attacks on the Iranian Embassy in Bern.^[16][17]

Trade

Trade agreements

There are agreements between the two countries on air traffic (1954, 1972 and 2004), road and rail transport (1977), export risk guarantees (1966), protection of investments (1998) and double taxation (2002). Iran is one of Switzerland's most important trading partners in the Middle East. Swiss-Iranian economic treaties already exist for investment protection, double taxation and aviation.^[18] A trade agreement was signed in 2005 but has not yet been ratified. In 2010, the volume of trade with Iran was about 741 million Swiss francs; Switzerland exported goods for about 700 million francs, and it has imported goods to 41 million Swiss francs. The main goods exported by Switzerland are pharmaceutical products, machinery and agricultural products.^[19] Switzerland exports to Iran totaled nearly USD 1.9 billion in the ten-month period ending on January 31, 2014.^[20]

2007 gas contract

In the year 2007, Iran and Switzerland signed a major 25-year gas contract to export over 5 billion cubic meters of gas per year from the Persian Gulf reportedly valued at 18 billion euros.^[21][22] Starting with 1.5 billion cubic meters per year in 2010, to be increased to 4 bcm by 2012.^[23] This contract has been signed between the Switzerland's company of Elektrizitätsgesellschaft Laufenburg (EGL) and the National Iranian Gas Export Company which will be started practically at the beginning of 2009.^[24][25] There is some skepticism that Iran will not be able to supply gas to Switzerland for the foreseeable future because no pipeline connects Iran to Europe at present.^[26] In February 2010, Iran announced it is ready for gas export to Switzerland.^[23] The deal was aimed at reducing Bern's dependency on Russian gas.^[23] In October 2010, EGL announced the unilateral suspension of the gas contract with Iran.^[27][28]

International sanctions

Switzerland and Iran have greatly reduced their bilateral economic cooperation since the UN Security Council took up Iran’s nuclear enrichment program in 2005.^[29] The Swiss government has been cooperating with the U.S. to freeze banking accounts and other financial assets belonging to individuals involved in the Iranian nuclear program; Switzerland has also committed to block the sale of dual-use items.^[29] Vitol and Glencore, 2 Swiss-based firms, were also major re-sellers of gasoline to Iran until recently but have since stopped trading with the country.^[30][31] In January and December 2011, Switzerland expanded its unilateral sanctions against Iran.^[19][32][33] The Swiss Federal Council said in a statement on January 2014 that it had suspended part of its economic sanctions against Iran in accordance with the Geneva nuclear accords between Tehran and the six world powers but the trade barriers are still officially in place.^[34] Based on a statement by Swiss President Didier Burkhalter at the 9th World Economic Forum, it will be a step by step process and the official removal of all trade sanctions will depend on the final agreement about Iran's nuclear program.^[35] It has been reported in the media that the Swiss government has circumvented the sanctions in several cases.^[36][37] In January 2016, following the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with P5+1, Switzerland lifted all unilateral sanctions against Iran.^[38][39]

See also

• Foreign relations of Switzerland
• Foreign relations of Iran
• Pizza Connection Trial
• EU-Iran Forum
• Naftiran Intertrade

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Relations of Iran and Switzerland.

• Iran–Switzerland relations – American Enterprise Institute

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