After canceling the Middle East conference: « Diplomatic Super-Gau » or « Chance »?
Diplomatic Super-Gau or chance? Switzerland canceled Middle East conference-that's how politicians see the problem
The Palestine Conference should have taken place in Geneva on Friday. Switzerland blown it the day before. While a National Council sees this as an « opportunity for neutrality », another describes it as a « embarrassment ».
Ambassador Franz Perrez (center) explains why the Middle East conference had to be canceled on March 7. The criticism of National Councilor Büchel (left) and Molina could not be more different.
Franz Perrez would have been busy with the Middle East Conference in Geneva on Friday morning. She would have turned the protection of civilians in occupied Palestinian areas including Eastern Jerusalem.
Instead, the ambassador and head of the Directorate for International Law sits in front of the media and explains why the meeting of the Conventions of the Geneva Conventions was canceled one day before: The feedback from the states on the declaration of final has clearly shown that an agreement was impossible.
All 196 contracting states were invited. Perrez does not want to give the number of people actually registered nor a threshold from which there would have been enough participants. However, what he says: « If not even half of the states register, then the critical mass from which one can keep a conference sensibly is clearly not reached. »
The UN General Assembly commissioned Switzerland
In September 2024, Switzerland received the order from the UN General Assembly to organize a Middle East conference, as asked by Palestinian representatives. The deadline: sporty six months. Switzerland received this mandate because it is the so -called “landfill state” of the Geneva conventions. In this role, she does not act as the contracting state of Switzerland, but to a certain extent as an administrator. It takes on administrative tasks, such as organizing a conference.
Switzerland has already carried out Middle East conferences in Geneva three times in 1999, 2001 and 2014. For the second time, a conference is now failing due to a lack of consensus in the final declaration. For the first time this happened in 2011. Perrez says that the dialogue was sought with all involved and formulated a text that took the different positions into account.
However, the Palestinian UN ambassador announced his absence because the Palestinian expectations of the economic and diplomatic steps against Israel had not been fulfilled. Israel, also against a conference from the start, sharply criticized the draft « which supports the diplomatic terrorism of the Palestinian Authority ».
Is that a diplomatic defeat in Switzerland?
Despite these clear words, Perrez does not want to speak of a diplomatic defeat. On the one hand because of the role of the landfill state. Perrez does not represent the state of Switzerland, but almost the administrator of the Geneva contracts. And on the other hand, Perrez reacts with pragmatism: « It does not need a conference for the sake of the conference. » During the preparations, the insurmountable differences were found and therefore no more results from a meeting.
The SP National Councilor Fabian Molina sees it quite differently. On the Bluesky platform, he writes that this cancellation is a « diplomatic super-gau ». He says: «Such a conference concerns the core of international law. If Switzerland fails at the organization, I no longer know what we are still good for. »
Upon request, he further spans the sheet on the tumbling international legal system. « It is scary that you don't even bring the contracting parties to a table anymore. » It is also an « embarrassment for the country that fails on the tracking ». With this cancellation, Switzerland had now said that the international legal system no longer works.
That was not a « mission impossible »
Perrez, on the other hand, emphasizes that none of the contracting states would have fundamentally questioned the Geneva conventions. Nobody doubted the importance of a conference. It was also not a « mission impossible » from the start: « When we started preparations, we and the UN general assembly thought that an agreement was possible. »
The SVP National Councilor Roland Rino Büchel, on the other hand, thinks that it could have been noticed earlier. He gains something positive for the cancellation of the conference: « This helps Switzerland to behave clearly neutral now. » According to Büchel, Switzerland should previously reject a mandate if it does not promise enough of it.
This mandate was in prospect a lot at stake and little profit. Büchel is for the fact that Switzerland focuses on other herds of conflict. « In the Middle East there are other countries that have an interest in mediation such as Qatar or Saudi Arabia. » For Switzerland, he saw more potential in Ukraine: « It would only make more sense in terms of geographical location. »
