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Switzerland to Resume Diplomatic Ties with Iraq
The Swiss government has decided to resume diplomatic relations with Iraq after a hiatus of almost 10 years, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported on Saturday November 25.
"The Swiss embassy in Baghdad will be reopened and will work to support the Swiss economic interests in Iraq and cement bilateral ties," the INA quoted the Swiss Foreign Minister Joseph Dayes as saying in Geneva on Saturday.
But the report did not say when the Swiss embassy in Baghdad will be reopened.
Meanwhile, the official daily Babil reported on Saturday said that the Swiss government will soon send two diplomats, rather than an ambassador, to Baghdad to reopen the embassy and take charge of the Swiss economic affairs in Iraq and visa services.
Switzerland closed its embassy in Baghdad on January 21, 1991, four days after the Gulf War that evicted Iraqi troops from Kuwait broke out.
However, there has been a steady improvement of relations between the two sides in recent years. Switzerland has so far donated humanitarian goods worth US$2.2 million this year to Iraq.
Iraq has been under crippling UN sanctions ever since its invasion of Kuwait in August 1990.
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