GENEVA: Switzerland said on Sunday it was reopening its embassy in Tehran, which was closed last month amid an air war with Israel, and will resume representing US interests in the country.
As of Sunday, the embassy is “again open having temporarily been closed on June 20 owing to the instability of the situation in the country,“ the Swiss foreign ministry said in a statement.
Ambassador Nadine Olivieri Lozano and a small team returned to Tehran overland on Saturday via Azerbaijan and the embassy will gradually resume operations, the statement went on.
“Having now returned to Tehran, Switzerland is once again in a position to fulfil its role as a protecting power for US interests in Iran.”
In the absence of diplomatic or consular relations between the United States and Iran, Switzerland, acting through its Tehran embassy, has officially represented US interests in Iran since 1980.
Tehran and Washington have already held five rounds of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme since April 12.
A sixth session, initially slated for June 15 and mediated by Oman, was cancelled after the outbreak of war sparked by an Israeli attack on Iran two days earlier.
Saying it wanted to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Israel last month carried out strikes against Iranian nuclear sites, killing several senior military officers as well as scientists involved in their nuclear programme.
US President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes targeting three nuclear facilities in central Iran on the night of June 21-22.
Tehran, which has denied wishing to acquire nuclear weapons, carried out retaliatory strikes against Israel before a ceasefire came into effect on June 24. – AFP
