Iran summons Swiss ambassador

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has summoned the Swiss ambassador to Tehran to protest calls made at a US Congress hearing for the assassination of Iranian officials.

A grilling note has been surrendered to the Swiss envoy conveying Tehran’s serious protests against the continuation of the brazen US policies in support of state terrorism, an Iranian Foreign Ministry statement said on Thursday.

The Swiss Embassy in Tehran officially represents US interests in the Islamic Republic.

The statement also quoted the head of the North America Bureau of Iran’s Foreign Ministry as saying that the questionable silence of the US government against the threatening calls “contradicts the legal obligations of Washington regarding the fight against terrorism.”

“Given the threats against our officials in this session, the responsibility of any terrorist act against Iranian authorities lies with the US administration,” he added.

During a hearing of the US House of Representatives’ Homeland Security on October 26, a number of American officials urged the White House to launch covert operations against Iran or even “kill” some of Iranian authorities over an alleged Iran-backed plot to kill the Saudi envoy to Washington.

“We’ve got to put our hand around their throat now. Why don’t we kill them? We kill other people who kill others,”said retired Army General Jack Keane at the event.

“And let’s not wring our hands. If the international community doesn’t want to step up to it, we go without them,” the retired general added.

Meanwhile, former CIA agent Reuel Marc Gerecht, now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think-tank, noted, “I don’t think that you are going to really intimidate these people, get their attention, unless you shoot somebody.”

On October 11, the US Justice Department accused Iran of plotting to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, with help from a man suspected of being a member of a Mexican drug cartel.

Tehran has categorically denied the allegations and stressed that the media hype fabricated by Washington is an attempt to deflect attention from the anti-corruption and anti-corporatism protests currently rocking the United States.