Diplomat Who Represented US Interests in Iran Found Dead Under Bizarre Circumstances
A senior Swiss diplomat was found dead in Tehran on Tuesday after falling from a high-rise building where she lived in the capital of Iran.
Although her name was not given, an emergency services spokesman told Mehr news agency that the 51-year-old woman was the first secretary at the Swiss embassy, BBC News reported.
Iranian emergency services spokesman Mojtaba Khaledi said the diplomat’s body was found by a gardener after an employee noticed she was missing early Tuesday, according to The Guardian.
When police in the Kamraniyeh area responded to the incident, Khaledi said the woman had been “dead for a while,” BBC reported.
The Swiss foreign ministry confirmed the diplomat had died in an accident.
“The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and its head Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis are shocked by the tragic death and express their deepest condolences to the family,” a spokesperson said.
The Swiss ministry has been in touch with the secretary’s family and Iranian authorities.
The Iranian foreign ministry also expressed its condolences to the diplomat’s family.
“The cause of her fall has yet to be determined,” Khaledi said, according to Reuters.
Details about the circumstances of the diplomat’s death have not been released due to data protection and privacy reasons.
However, her death is under investigation and the results of the investigation will be released soon, BBC reported.
Iranian emergency services have already ruled out death by suicide.
Switzerland has represented United States’ interests in Iran since shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution when Washington and Tehran cut diplomatic ties.
Last year, after Iran freed a U.S. Navy veteran who had been detained since 2018, a spokesman for former President Donald Trump’s White House expressed hope that the relationship between the two countries could be opened, Reuters reported.
“The two nations are at odds on a host of issues including the U.S. decision to abandon a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program and impose crippling economic sanctions on Tehran, as well as their jockeying for influence across the Middle East,” the outlet said.
In his final month in office, Trump imposed a series of new sanctions on Iran after Iran’s alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election, the Council on Foreign Relations reported.
This past month, U.S. and Iranian officials met in Vienna with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, signatories to talk about coming back to the agreement.
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