 |
"I am skeptical about too much dependency vis-a-vis Iran," German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) told journalists after a meeting with Swiss President Pascal Couchepin, though she stressed she was not referring to Switzerland in particular.
|
|
|
BERN (AFP)---German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday she was "skeptical" about countries forming energy and trading ties with Iran which could end up making them count too much on Tehran.
"I am skeptical about too much dependency vis-a-vis Iran," she told journalists after a meeting with Swiss President Pascal Couchepin, though she stressed she was not referring to Switzerland in particular.
Switzerland's trade and diplomatic relations with the Islamic republic have come under fire in recent months after Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey travelled to Tehran in March to sign a gas deal.
Israel and the United States also criticized the deal between Iran's state gas firm and Switzerland's Elektrizitaets-Gesellschaft (EGL) Laufenburg, whereby Iran will reportedly supply 5.5 billion cubic metres (194 trillion cubic feet) of gas annually from 2011.
The Anti-Defamation League, an American Jewish group, took out full-page advertisements in Swiss and international newspapers earlier this month accusing Switzerland of "funding terrorism" through the deal, a charge rejected by Bern.
Couchepin said the deal was only one part of a wider project to diversify energy sources over the coming years.
"In the long-term, we want to make sure Europe is not reliant on any one provider," said the president, who travels to oil and gas exporter Azerbaijan on May 10.
Merkel, on her first official bilateral visit to Switzerland, said the two leaders also discussed transport and tax issues. Later Tuesday she was due to visit the CERN physics laboratory, near Geneva.
