February 21-2014
Switzerland has modified its sanctions on Iran to bring them in line with the modifications adopted last month by the European Union.
Some news reports in Iran said Switzerland had ended its sanctions, but the Swiss did not do that.
Switzerland does not approve of the sanctions and has said so publicly. But it reluctantly agreed to adopt sanctions in 2012 after the EU imposed heavy sanctions on Iran.
The EU complained that it didn’t want Switzerland becoming a conduit for European goods that couldn’t be shipped straight to Iran and the Swiss feared the EU might impose trade rules that would hurt Swiss trade with the EU, so they agreed to adopt sanctions on Iran that reflected the EU’s.
Now Switzerland has scaled its sanctions back in parallel with the EU scale-back. The Swiss change is only good until August, reflecting the EU and US concerns that Iran enjoy no concessions for more than the six-month duration of the interim agreement unless a permanent agreement can be reached.
But Swiss sanctions have never been as tough as EU sanctions and Swiss trade with Iran has continued. Iranian state broadcasting reported last week that Switzerland has surged to be Iran’s chief trade partner in Europe under sanctions.
In the first 10 months of the current Persian year, official statistics show that Switzerland had exports to Iran totaling $1.9 billion, the highest for any European country.
