Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Do Switzerland's good offices still exist? The Alpine nation often presents itself as an intermediary between the Iran and the US, keeping the lines of communication open in times of need. Now is really the time but the negotiations are going through Pakistan and before that it was Oman. Egypt and Turkey have also been mentioned in the news and support comes from China.
Switzerland always acts discreetly. Perhaps discreet to the point of being invisible?
Be that as it may, peace doesn't care who helps bring it about.
Warm greetings from Bern
The fire disaster in Crans-Montana is far from being dealt with. Does the canton of Valais also have to answer for it? And a victim falls through the cracks.
The victim’s name is Sélim and he comes from France. The man was initially uninjured on the night of the fire. According to Le Parisien he repeatedly returned to the burning bar to help others out of the inferno. In the process, Sélim inhaled poisonous gases that still trouble his lungs today.
“My bronchial tubes are affected,” he says. Even weeks after the fire, doctors had found traces of the gases in his lungs. He is unable to work and is therefore in financial distress. However, he is not entitled to money from Switzerland. Only victims who have been treated in hospital are eligible for emergency aid payments.
Meanwhile, according to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, a victim of the fire has filed a criminal complaint against three high-ranking officials of the canton of Valais. The three work for the canton in the field of security and fire protection. They are accused of negligent homicide, negligent arson as well as murder and arson with contingent intent, the newspaper writes, based on investigation files. With the criminal complaint, the victim’s relative raises the question of whether the canton had fulfilled its supervisory role.
Now is the moment that Switzerland has been working towards for decades: to bring the US and Iran to the negotiating table. The fact that the placements are underway in Pakistan raises questions.
Micheline Calmy-Rey was once Switzerland’s foreign minister. Now she is criticising the Swiss foreign ministry. According to her, the Swiss embassy in Tehran shut its doors too soon and brought the ambassador home too early. “If there was one embassy that had to remain open, it would have been that of Switzerland,” says Calmy-Rey.
For decades, the Swiss representation acted as the US liaison office with the regime in Tehran. In order not to spoil relations with the mullahs in Tehran, Switzerland had consistently refrained from sanctioning representatives of the Iranian regime in the past. In vain.
In the current conflict, the Swiss ambassador has repeatedly offered Switzerland’s good offices. In vain. Then he left the country. Now negotiations will take place in Pakistan on Saturday. With good relations with Tehran and Washington, Islamabad has taken on the role of mediator mantle with the support of China.
The Swiss foreign ministry welcomed the ceasefire yesterday. The consequences of this ceasefire are being analysed – especially with a view to the possible reopening of the Swiss embassy in Tehran, the ministry told Le Temps.
According to information from CH Media, groups of Russian expats have shown interest in critical Swiss infrastructure such as nuclear power plants in recent months.
There are groups that have visited Swiss nuclear power plants up to three times since the beginning of 2024. The groups were also interested in the Gotthard Base Tunnel and repeatedly visited Zurich Airport.
The Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) is aware of the group visits. “We constantly assesses such events in the overall geopolitical context,” an FIS spokesman told CH Media. The operators of the plants emphasised that safety was the top priority. Sensitive areas are not accessible to the public.
In a Swiss dinosaur museum, a barely noticed piece of rock suddenly turns out to be a sensational find. It contains the skull of a long-necked dinosaur.
Paleontologists are enthusiastic. Skulls of so-called sauropods are practically never found – for good reason. The small heads sat high up on long necks and had to be lightly built, with thin bones. This is why sauropods fossils often lack the skull.
The skull that has now come to light in Zurich is only the second such find worldwide. The sauropod died young, between the age of 8 to 10 years, and its skull was apparently enclosed in extremely fine sand, therefore not crushed. The Aathal Dinosaur Museum christened its find “Lucy”.
The stone slab that contained the find ended up in the Aathal Dinosaur Museum years ago as a secondary find. However, it was not examined in more detail until the beginning of 2026. “With Lucy, the team in Aathal proves once again that it plays in the top league as a dinosaur museum,” writes the NZZ about the event.
Translated using AI/ac
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