On the fringes of a news conference on Wednesday, Burkhalter indicated that the decision would be taken shortly and the Swiss chargé d’affaires would be recalled swiftly.
“We will close the embassy in the next few days,” he told public radio.
The up to 180 Swiss nationals in Syria, mostly dual nationals, would be asked to leave the country for safety reasons.
Many European Union countries decided to withdraw their ambassadors to Syria ten days ago. The international community is divided over how to resolve the civil unrest which began 11 months ago.
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Swiss tighten sanctions against Syria
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An additional 34 individuals and 19 companies were added to the list according to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. A total of 108 alleged members of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad are now banned from entering Switzerland and their bank accounts have been blocked. The 38 Syrian firms under embargo include financial institutions,…
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The Federal Criminal Court said it ordered the funds unblocked and granted Hafez Makhlouf SFr1,800 in damages, overturning a decision by prosecutors last September who had suspected him of money laundering. The court ruling was taken last month but was first reported on Thursday. Makhlouf, a senior official in the Syrian intelligence service, was barred…
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Addressing the 66th General Assembly in New York on Monday, Paul Seger said Switzerland deemed it necessary for the council to act immediately “in view of the gross violations of human rights that have been committed, coupled with the unwillingness of the Syrian authorities to prosecute the perpetrators”. The 193-member Assembly met to discuss the…
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Chappatte has wryly summarised events of the Arab Spring since they began hitting the headlines last year. These drawings appeared in the International Herald Tribune, in the Geneva daily Le Temps and in the Sunday edition of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.