Posted by
InchDeep on Thursday, April 10, 2008 11:08:46 AM
From EJP.
The
ejection of the populist politician Christoph Blocher from the Swiss
government in December 2007 gave rise to hope that Switzerland could
restore its tainted image and that the country’s “splendid isolation”
on the international stage might soon be over. In an opinion piece for
“NZZ am Sonntag” on 30 December 2007 I wrote: “Switzerland will not
have a glorious future by isolating itself from the European Union and
the wider world. In our globalized world (…) you cannot isolate
yourself if you want to be heard. Swiss diplomacy can only return to
its former strength if the Federal Council and the parties supporting
it once again represent an open-minded Switzerland.”
Who would have
thought that this call would be heeded so quickly? Two weeks ago, Swiss
Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey appeared, veiled in a headscarf,
at the side of Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to seal an enormous
deal with the National Iranian Gas Export Company. She did so on behalf
of a private Swiss company, “to safeguard Switzerland’s own strategic
interests,” as she put it. Back home, Calmy-Rey said that she had
pressed Tehran on issues such as human rights or the nuclear program.
The Iranian newspaper “Tehran Times” phrased it somewhat differently:
“Calmy-Rey appreciated Iran for its cooperation with the IAEA. She also
called for the continued Iran-Switzerland dialogue on human rights.” It
became clear immediately that the visit by the Swiss foreign minister
was a propagandistic triumph for the mullahs.
A few days after the
Iranian gas deal, Calmy-Rey’s Foreign Affairs Department secured the
election of Jean Ziegler as special adviser of the United Nations Human
Rights Council. Ziegler, a self-declared human rights activist, is best
known as campaigner for dictators such as Colonel Khaddafi of Libya,
Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe or Fidel Castro of Cuba.
Brushing aside all
criticism leveled against Ziegler by respected international
personalities and organizations, Calmy-Rey got her preferred candidate
elected by forging alliances with the many Asians and Africans
represented on the council – the same countries that rarely miss an
opportunity to bash Israel for defending itself against the attacks by
Hamas and Hezbollah. Incidentally, it was Jean Ziegler who in 2006
claimed that Hezbollah in Lebanon was not a terrorist group, but a
“national resistance movement”. He even expressed understanding for the
kidnapping by Hezbollah of the two Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and
Eldad Regev, who have not been released until this day.
In early March,
Micheline Calmy-Rey personally appeared before the Human Rights Council
to advocate a one-sided resolution, sponsored by Islamic countries,
condemning Israel for its operations in the Palestinian territories –
operations that are aimed at protecting Israel’s citizens from the
constant rocket attacks by Hamas supporters. While all European Union
countries on the council abstained, Switzerland voted in favor of the
one-sided resolution, yet the Human Rights Council failed to condemn
the deadly terrorist attack at a Jerusalem rabbinical seminary which
had occurred shortly before.
There is nothing
wrong with governments defending their national interests, but such
actions should be centered around certain basic principles, i.e. those
of democracy, peace and human liberties.
There is nothing
wrong with criticizing Israel, provided equal measures of judgment and
criticism are being applied to all countries.
What is horribly
wrong, though, is Mrs. Calmy-Rey’s flawed foreign policy. It makes
Switzerland a hostage to countries that, rather than respect human
rights, pay merely lip service to them. This is especially true of
international bodies like the UN Human Rights Council that has lost its
credibility in the record-breaking time of 18 months.
Only days after the
manipulated parliamentary election in Iran, Mrs. Calmy-Rey chose to
lend public support to the Islamist regime in Tehran, whose declared
aim is the eradication of Israel, while at the same time strengthening
Israel’s (hypo-)critics at the United Nations in Geneva. But beware:
placating the mullahs in Tehran comes with a heavy political price tag.
Micheline Calmy-Rey
has gravely undermined the efforts of the international community, in
particular the five permanent members on the UN Security Council and
Switzerland’s neighbor Germany, to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear
power eventually capable of wreaking havoc on Israel and the entire
Middle East. How on earth can we expect the sanctions regime to achieve
results if a UN member – host country to many UN bodies – makes a
mockery of the United Nations?
The current Swiss
government has chosen to reduce the country’s natural gas dependence on
Russia by helping a Swiss company to clinch a deal with another (the
Islamic Republic of Iran). The Swiss Jewish Community Federation is
right to point out that Mrs. Calmy-Rey’s trip to Tehran sends out all
the wrong signals. The US government is correct in criticizing
Switzerland for setting a bad example for the rest of Europe.
It would be naïve to
believe that Micheline Calmy-Rey’s announcement of a “human rights
dialogue” with the rulers in Tehran will lead to any concrete
improvements of the situation in Iran. The hanging and stoning of
dissidents, students, homosexuals and other regime critics; the rigging
of elections; the anti-Israel campaign sponsored by Tehran and its
allies Hamas and Hezbollah that is violent both in words and in action;
the denial of the Holocaust; the apparent quest for nuclear weapons:
all that will continue, not only in spite of, but perhaps also because
of the gas deal.
The concept of Swiss
neutrality has a long tradition, but Switzerland’s credibility as an
honest broker in international diplomacy has been badly bruised. Mrs.
Calmy-Rey has sold out her government’s international credibility in
return for 5.5 billion cubic meters of Iranian natural gas and perhaps
for some new friends in the radical Muslim world – definitely not a
good investment! The next months will show if this Swiss diplomacy will
be able to undo the damage that has been done.