The Simon Wiesenthal Center urged the Swiss government to cancel its $18 billion gas deal with Iran.
“This ill-conceived and ill-timed deal, signed in the presence of the Swiss Foreign Minister, bolsters the Iranian regime and weakens the International Community’s efforts to use economic sanctions to force Iran to stop its nuclearization program,” said a statement by Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the L.A.-based Wiesenthal Center and Leo Adler, of the Canadian-based Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center.
The two released the statement following their meeting Thursday with Swiss State Secretary Michael Ambuhl in Bern, the Swedish capital.
“Further, press reports indicate that the bulk of the Iranian gas is destined for Italy and not, as was asserted, a way for Switzerland to lessen its reliance on Russian gas. So the question remains as to whose strategic and national interests are being served,” the statement says,
During their meeting with Ambuhl, Cooper and Adler also urged Switzerland to oppose the anti-Israel resolutions frequently approved by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
“Since the Council’s inception, it has passed 20 resolutions – 19 against Israel and one on Burma – but nothing on the genocide in Darfur or the current crisis in Tibet,” the two Jews noted.
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