Swiss humanitarian channel to Iran soon
BERN, Dec 12, (Agencies): A humanitarian channel to bring food and medicine to Iran could be up and running within months, senior Swiss and US officials told Reuters, helping supply Swiss goods to the struggling population without tripping over US sanctions.
Food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies are exempt from sanctions that Washington reimposed last year after US President Donald Trump walked away from a 2015 international deal over Iran’s nuclear programme.
But the US measures targeting everything from oil sales to shipping and financial activities have deterred several foreign banks from doing business with the Islamic Republic – including humanitarian deals – just as Iran grapples with major protests.
Pascale Baeriswyl, Swiss state secretary for foreign affairs, and US Ambassador Edward McMullen spoke in separate interviews in the Swiss capital late on Tuesday, days after a rare Swiss-brokered prisoner swap by arch foes Iran and the United States.
“Our role is really to be able to provide food and health goods to the Iranian people. And therefore we are working hard on establishing that humanitarian channel,” Baeriswyl said.
US clarifications announced in October on how to verify and certify such deals – bypassing Iran’s central bank and ensuring that no payments are transferred to Iran – helped advance the project so as to safeguard Swiss exporters.
“Ultimately that depends on companies and banks wanting to participate ... We have made progress recently,” Baeriswyl said.
Asked whether the mechanism could be operational in the first half of 2020, she replied: “I hope so, but it is very difficult to predict since it is not entirely in our hands.”
McMullen was also upbeat. “Fortunately, I think we are at that point now where we are working with Switzerland on the final details. And hopefully we’ll be seeing some kind of finality to that conversation in the near future,” he said.
After an Iranian scientist was released over the weekend as part of a prisoner exchange, federal prosecutors on Wednesday dismissed charges against two of his former students who were accused along with him of violating trade sanctions.