UANI’s Switzerland Campaign highlights the extensive Iran business activities of Swiss firms, and the refusal of the Swiss government to join the international community in implementing robust sanctions against the Iranian regime. As one of the world's key commodity trading and banking hubs, Switzerland’s Iran business enables the regime to offset the effects of ongoing sanctions and supports the regime’s industrial sector and even its nuclear program.
Switzerland's economic and foreign policy largely conforms with the EU, its main trading partner. Although not a party to the JCPOA, the Swiss Government announced on October 21, 2015, that Swiss sanctions against Iran would be lifted at the same time as those of the UN and the EU. Most notably, this repealed the Swiss Government’s funds transfer controls.
During the height of sanctions,Switzerland's refusal to adopt critical EU-backed embargo measures enabled Geneva-based oil trader Vitol to buy 2 million barrels of fuel oil from Iran in July 2012 and profit from its sale to Chinese traders. U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland Donald S. Beyer expressed “disappointment” that Switzerland failed to join the EU oil embargo.
Switzerland has also permitted the Iranian regime to operate front companies for its sanctioned oil sector on its territory. For example, the Swiss-based Naftiran Intertrade Company and Petro Suisse Intertrade Company are both under U.S. and EU sanctions. Naftiran has been described as a virtual “offshore arm of the National Iranian Oil Company.”
Swiss officials have defended their country’s close business ties to Iran by arguing that the Swiss government only supports those sanctions imposed by the United Nations. Even by its own standards though, Switzerland falls well short. In March 2013, it was revealed that Swiss commodity traders Glencore and Trafigura had engaged in barter arrangements with the Iranian Aluminum Company (Iralco) that provided Iralco with thousands of tons of alumina in exchange for aluminum metal. At the same time, Iralco has provided aluminum (potentially produced from Swiss supplied alumina) for Iran’s nuclear program through a contract with the sanctioned Iran Centrifuge Technology Co. (TESA), which is, in turn, a subsidiary of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI). According to a confidential report by the U.N. Expert Panel monitoring Iran sanctions enforcement, Glencore and Trafigura’s metal swaps deals.
The Swiss government’s failure to implement robust sanctions against Tehran and the Swiss business community’s dubious trade with Iran make Switzerland a flagrant outlier in addressing the Iranian regime’s illicit nuclear aspirations. Now is the time for Switzerland to stop counteracting the will of the international community, and correct its irresponsible Iran policies.