Iran parliament approves road transportation deal with Switzerland

The Iranian parliament has approved a major deal for good and passenger transportation through roads between Iran and Switzerland as the two countries expand their trade ties despite economic sanctions imposed by the United Stets on Tehran.

The Majlis approved the road transportation agreement with Switzerland with a strong majority on Monday with 183 out of 248 lawmakers present in the chamber voting for a bill submitted by the Iranian administrative government to sign the deal into a law.

The deal would allow Iran and Switzerland to remove normal administrative barriers for the exchange of goods and passengers in road transportation. The bill endorsing the agreement was formulated in 14 articles, according to a draft published by the Majlis news service which said that the agreement would also cover transportation with Liechtenstein based on an official request from the small European country.

Switzerland has struggled to maintain its economic relations with Iran even after the United States imposed a harsh regime of sanctions on Iran in 2018 with the aim of choking off the country’s trade with the rest of the world.

Bern even launched a special financial mechanism to process trade of food and humanitarian goods between Iran and major companies represented in Switzerland. The channel, known as the SHTA, has been used for several major transactions since it was launched in January 2020.

The Swiss embassy in Tehran hailed the ratification of the road transpiration agreement in Majlis. It sent a post on its Twitter page on Monday saying the agreement, which had been signed before the US imposed its sanctions on Iran in November 2018, would help trade grow between Iran and Switzerland.

MG