Head of Trend Persian Desk Dalga Khatinoglu
Basler Zeitung newspaper reported that information disseminated in Switzerland that during the UN meeting in Geneva last month, Iranian President discussed with his Swiss counterpart the issue of freeing American journalist Roxana Saber convicted four months ago.
Although officially information about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's meeting with Hans-Rudolf Merz was refuted, but it is clear that the meeting yielded a positive result.
Being convicted of espionage, Saber was freed two days ago according to the decision by the Court of Appeal.
Switzerland does not for the first time acts as a mediator between Iran and the United States.
In order to resolve the issue concerning the nuclear program, Switzerland offers the following: to suspend the uranium enrichment in Iran for a month, and in response to this action - not to increase the international sanctions during that period, or instead of using uranium gas (UF6) in Iranian centrifuges - to conduct a trial introduction of other substitute gases.
Although Iran has not accepted the proposals of Switzerland regarding the nuclear program, the undeniable fact is that official Tehran needs Switzerland. The reason is that during his visit to Tehran in 2008, the Foreign Minister of Switzerland, Michel Kalemie highlighted willingness to conclude a contract on gas supply in amount of 26 billion euros. This step is very important for official Tehran in terms of its international isolation.
On the other hand, Iran imports about 40 percent of gasoline. Huge share of imported gasoline (about 80 percent) is accounted for the Swiss company.
Two months ago, the U.S. Congress started and still continues discussions on the issue of sanctions against companies that sell gasoline to Iran. Some 50 congressmen opposed the decision. It is not excluded that this issue was discussed during the meeting of the Iranian President with his Swiss counterpart.
News was disseminated that Iran will free Saber if diplomats in custody in Iraq are freed. But the press secretary of the Foreign Ministry of Iran Hasan Gasgavi denied these rumors.
Currently Iran is facing enormous economic problems. During the presidency of Ahmadinejad, Iran's reserve fund became empty, the cost of oil fell from $150 to $50, inflation reached 25 percent. All these create difficulties for Ahmadinejad in the elections.
In fact, Ahmadinejad is not interested in imposing an embargo on import of gasoline into the country, because it may harm his image in the upcoming elections.