President Rouhani is accompanied by First VP Es’hagh Jahangiri, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Leader’s senior aide for International Affairs Ali Akbar Velayati, Health Minister Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi, Minister of Economy Masoud Karbasian, Minister of Culture Abbas Salehi, and Governor of Central Bank of Iran Valiollah Seif.
Rouhani is visiting Switzerland followed by a visit to Austria at the official invitation of the presidents of the two respective countries.
Rouhani will be received by Alain Berset, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, with military honors in Zurich on Monday. The two presidents will hold initial informal talks in the capital Bern, with Foreign Affairs Minister Ignazio Cassis and his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif also in attendance.
Official talks will be held Tuesday, with President Berset, as well as Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga and Economics Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann, who had invited Rouhani to visit Switzerland during his own official visit to Tehran in 2016.
During Rouhani’s visit, a number of agreements and declarations of intent are expected to be signed, with the Iran nuclear deal dubbed JCPOA and the situation in the Near and Middle East as the central topics of discussion between the two sides.
Following the US pullout from the Iran nuclear deal on May 8, EU has been making efforts to provide Iran with ‘solid guarantees’ that the agreement would continue to serve the country’s economic interests. Iran is waiting for EU’s proposed package that would convince Tehran to stay in the deal despite US sanctions.
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