Why is Switzerland helping Iran???

Switzerland has a long history of acting pretty badly...

The European Union and the U.S. have passed tough sanctions targeting Iran’s energy sector, but Switzerland’s Social Democratic foreign minister Micheline Calmy-Rey is trying hard to undercut these effort to secure Middle East peace and Western security.

The Swiss daily NZZ reported on Sunday that Swiss government officials in the Economics Department believe Calmy-Rey is too “careful when dealing with the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.” They have also criticized her for snubbing American security interests. Calmy-Rey grounds her opposition to EU sanctions on Switzerland’s “neutrality and impartiality,” which she hopes will “open doors for us in Tehran and Washington” and help Switzerland economically. While Switzerland is not technically a member of the EU, Calmy-Rey is practicing a phony, obsolete notion of neutrality.

Her opposition to American security interests and her indifference to the rights of women in Iran are longstanding. In 2008, Calmy-Rey traveled to Tehran to help seal a massive €18 billion gas deal between the Swiss energy giant Elektrizitaets-Gesellschaft Laufenburg (EGL) and the state-owned National Iranian Gas Export Co. While euphorically embracing Ahmadinejad during the visit, Calmy-Rey donned a head-scarf.

EGL’s gas contract with the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) would deliver 5.5 billion cubic meters of Iranian gas to Europe per year over a period of 25 years. The NIGEC is a subsidiary of the National Iranian Gas Company, which was placed on Britain’s Proliferation Concerns List in February 2009.