Demonstrations held outside Iranian embassy in Switzerland
Around 200 people demonstrated in favour of overthrowing the Iranian regime outside the Iranian embassy in Bern on Saturday.
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening:
Demonstrations held outside Iranian embassy in Switzerland
“Free Iran” was written on one of the banners, as reported by a correspondent for the Keystone-SDA news agency. Pictures of the Shah’s son Reza Pahlavi were held aloft. His name was chanted repeatedly.
+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
Flags of the Iranian monarchy opposition dominated the scene in front of the sealed-off Iranian embassy on the other side of the street.
More
Escalation of violence in Iran becomes test of character for Switzerland
Israeli flags could also be seen at the rally. “It’s okay today, the Israelis are our friends in the fight against the mullahs,” said one activist.
Special Swiss role
Switzerland has represented the interests of the US in Iran as a protecting power for over 40 years.
The protecting power mandate dates back to the hostage crisis of 1979: after the Islamic Republic was proclaimed in Iran, students occupied the US embassy in Tehran and took staff hostage. The US subsequently broke off all diplomatic relations with Iran.
A year later, Switzerland offered to represent the interests of the US in Iran. Since 1980, it has thus acted as a “messenger” between Washington and Tehran, taking on diplomatic and consular tasks.
More
Need a diplomatic messenger? Switzerland is eager to help
Adapted from German by AI/ac
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch
External Content
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
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.