Tehran Welcomes Switzerland’s Opposition to Anti-Iran Sanctions

Switzerland’s opposition to economic sanctions against Iran was a “correct decision”, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said, and urged other European states to follow suit and review their stance on Iran.

“We believe this decision (by Switzerland) affects our bilateral ties and we hope that other states in Europe and the West abandon their wrong decisions and return to a correct approach that will be effective for their national interests,” Mehman-Parast said in a weekly press conference here in Tehran on Tuesday.

He also lashed out at the sanctions against Iran, and stated, “We consider each sanction as a negative and wrong step and regard any removal of these illegal and irrational sanctions as a correct approach for compensating the past mistakes.”

The spokesman, however, said that sanctions will consolidate the Iranian nation’s resolve to continue the path of independence.

His remarks came after the Swiss Foreign Ministry last week rejected the US-led West’s oil and financial embargos against Iran, and announced that the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) can continue business activities in Switzerland.

Iran’s central bank, under siege from the US and European Union, which froze its assets in January, can keep doing business in Switzerland because of its systemic importance to the Persian Gulf nation’s economy, said a spokesman for the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

Switzerland will also leave the door open to Iranian oil imports, the spokesman, Rudolf Christen, said.