The Federal Council’s ban decision calls for further consequences: Switzerland is no longer allowed to cuddle with Hamas helpers

Foreign politician Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter (59) sees things very differently. “The question of how to deal with such third countries can arise in many conflicts.” The national councilor of the Basel Center rejects sanctions or the like. It seems more important to her to continually raise the issue of Iran’s problematic financing within the framework of the protective power mandate. “Also in the case of Qatar, it is more productive to place our values ​​within the framework of diplomatic and economic contacts.”

Economic interests in Qatar

Contacts with Qatar are “excellent”, as the Swiss ambassador in Doha, Edgar Döring, said a year ago. You can also do lucrative business with the Gulf State.

• With a trade volume of 2.3 billion francs, Qatar was already Switzerland’s third trading partner in the Middle East in 2022.
• In 2022, paintings worth 600 million francs, as well as jewelry and luxury watches worth almost 800 million francs were exported to Qatar.
• Other export hits include machinery, medicines and gold.
• Qatar is also the largest buyer of Swiss military equipment. In 2022, arms and ammunition worth 213.4 million francs were exported to the Gulf state.

Given Qatar’s economic importance, it is not surprising that former Minister of Finance and former Minister of Defense Ueli Maurer (72) had particularly close relations with Qatar. He visited the state several times, even his last official trip was to Doha where he attended the Switzerland-Brazil World Cup match.

Help with Lex Koller

But the Qataris are also interested in doing business with Switzerland: they invested five percent in Credit Suisse and held shares in commodities giant Glencore. And Switzerland is negotiating to buy liquefied gas from Qatar. Another industry that attracts Qataris is tourism: years ago, the Qatari sovereign wealth fund bought luxury hotels such as the Schweizerhof in Bern and the Bürgenstock Resort on Lake Lucerne for a total of almost a billion Swiss francs.

And here too Maurer helped: When the Qataris on the Bürgenstock could not rent out their apartments and therefore wanted to sell them to rich foreigners, Maurer is said to have personally argued for an exception to the Lex Koller on the “Bürgenstock”.

In Iran the economy is not (yet) important.

When it comes to Iran, Switzerland’s economic interests are less important. The trade volume in 2022 amounted to only 163 million francs, which is also due to the international sanctions against the mullah regime. It is virtually impossible for a Swiss company to find a bank willing to finance possible business activities related to Iran.

Diplomatic dialogue is more important. Switzerland has several protective power mandates with Iran. As such, as part of its good offices, it represents the interests of foreign states – such as those of Iran in Egypt and Canada and those of the US in Iran. These “good offices” are not entirely altruistic. Switzerland’s diplomatic commitment should lead to more stability in the Middle East. But the federal government is also hoping for privileged access to various governments, which could one day pay off.