DAR AL HARB-SWITZERLAND: "WHEN YOU FINANCE A TERRORIST STATE, YOU FINANCE TERRORISM."

Switzerland Called the World's Latest Financier of Terrorism
By Julie Stahl

A recent Swiss energy deal with Iran will help finance Hizballah, Hamas and the Iranian nuclear weapons program, the Anti-Defamation League is charging in a new ad campaign.

The series of ads are appearing this week in major U.S. and international papers, including The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, and the European edition of The Wall Street Journal.

Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey joined Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran last month to witness the signing of a energy deal in which a Swiss energy company agreed to buy natural gas from a state-owned Iranian company for 25 years, beginning in 2011.

The likely result of the Swiss energy deal, the ADL ad says, is that Hizballah and Hamas could get tens of thousands of additional missiles; the Iranian regime will be able to accelerate its nuclear program; and terror cells in Europe, the Middle East and around the world will have access to new weapons and support.

Swiss citizens should be alarmed that their government is funding the Iranian regime that "viciously abuses the human rights of millions of its own citizens, especially women and minorities," the ad says.

Last year, Calmy-Rey said that Switzerland's fight against terrorism remains a "priority." But according to the ADL's ad, "When you finance a terrorist state, you finance terrorism."

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"In the battles against the Nazi regime during World War II and communism during the Cold War, Switzerland pursued its narrow self-interest by professing neutrality," Foxman wrote.

"Today the Swiss appear to be taking the same approach in the current global war against the radical Islamist threat, spearheaded by Iran, which menaces Israel's existence and the security of the West," he said.

"But neutrality isn't an option. And for Switzerland, a country that takes pride in its liberal democracy and claims to have learned from its history, it shouldn't even be considered," he added.

Israel called the signing of the Swiss-Iran energy deal an "unfriendly act," and the U.S. said it sent "precisely the wrong message at a time when Iran continues to defy U.N. Security Council resolutions."

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Pertinent Links:

1) Switzerland Called the World's Latest Financier of Terrorism