Switzerland, which also represents US interests in Iran, has reopened its embassy in Tehran after a closure due to the air war between Israel and Iran, the Swiss foreign ministry said on Sunday.
"Ambassador Nadine Olivieri Lozano and a small team returned to Tehran yesterday overland via Azerbaijan. The embassy will gradually resume operations," the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. It had been closed since June 20.
Growing concern of Iranian espionage
Switzerland’s intelligence service said Wednesday that Iranian espionage posed a growing threat to Swiss diplomats, hours after a Swiss public television investigation cast new doubt on a series of mysterious deaths involving Swiss citizens in Iran.
The Federal Intelligence Service (FIS), in its annual “Security Switzerland 2025” assessment, listed Iran alongside Russia, China, and North Korea as states that have intensified intelligence activity against the Alpine nation.
The report noted that Switzerland’s unique role as Washington’s protecting power in Tehran “increases the visibility of Swiss personnel to hostile services.”
The warning followed a joint investigation by Swiss public broadcasters SRF and RTS that aired late Tuesday. In the broadcast, a man who identified himself as a former officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) alleged that Swiss diplomat Sylvie Brunner was pushed from the 17th-floor balcony of her Tehran residence in May 2021 after an IRGC surveillance operation went awry.
Iranian authorities ruled the death a suicide but have refused to share full investigative files with Bern.
Political fallout in Bern
Several opposition lawmakers said they would raise the Tehran deaths at the next meeting of parliament’s foreign-affairs committee, though no formal inquiry has been scheduled. Green Party legislator Balthasar Glättli told SRF the repeated obstructions by Iranian authorities were “no longer acceptable” and called for a “transparent international investigation.”
Since 1980, Switzerland has represented US interests in Iran, handling consular affairs and passing messages between Washington and Tehran. Former Swiss intelligence officials interviewed by SRF said that role makes Swiss diplomats prime targets for IRGC surveillance, especially amid escalating Israeli-Iranian tensions.
The new FIS assessment warned that regional conflict had increased the risk of “direct pressure” on Swiss personnel abroad and urged tighter security measures at the embassy in Tehran.