Germany pulls back warships from Hormuz mission, German Embassy restricts services at Tehran embassy and a terror attack at Berlin Pride

As an outsider returning from significant periods of time outside the Alpine region to Bern, Switzerland can be disorienting. In part, this is because beyond the Alps, there is a world out there of wars and conflict, of strong characters and connections to the world around. Yet to return to the Swiss capital is to return to a self-contained world where little comes in and even less seems to go out these days.

Consensus cultures are less personality-driven and excellence is not necessarily a winning formula where social networks are tightly woven. Like the US, Switzerland believes it is an idea but unlike the US, in practice, it is more blood and soil than people might realize or wish to admit.

There was a time, let's call it the 1980s, when Lake Léman (also often mistakenly referred to as Lake Geneva in the English language media—that exists too, just in the US state of Wisconsin) was the focal point of international diplomacy, détente, and START talks. There was even an enormously successful play that starred Law & Order alum Sam Waterston by Lee Blessing, "A Walk in the Woods," that took on the challenges confronting US and Soviet diplomats in that era to the American stage. I do suggest giving it a watch.

Switzerland then was a brand and not just a backdrop: the world's mediator. To be Switzerland in the colloquial sense meant to be bold and brave enough to be direct with all sides but not take sides. But that was then.

Now a raft of other countries from Pakistan to Azerbaijan are providing the proverbial woods in which to walk. Recently and since returning from the US, I found support from Bernese locals over beers when comparing Swiss neutrality's glory days of the US-Soviet talks of the 1980s with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as some sort of Swiss equivalent to the swan song of the British Empire, the Falkland Islands. If the brand is to survive long enough to enter a period where we can speak of heritage and craft as we would of course any other luxury brand, perhaps it's time for a reboot?

The idea of course of one last hurrah before decline is always difficult for proud people, especially when that hurrah was now over a decade ago. Neutrality now is less a door opener and more something of a door closer. As the world turns, Switzerland has taken to stamping its calendar with one absurd referendum after another as a way of avoiding a world in which Russia is mass producing new low-cost Banderole cruise missiles, as The Kyiv Post reports Thursday, and "strategic autonomy" is set to cost Europe €14 trillion ($16.1 trillion) by 2035, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

The latest crockpot idea: enshrining a rigid interpretation of neutrality into the Swiss constitution, which does not seem very neutral but rather hard right instead. While Europe is fast learning that strongly worded statements of concern will not protect it, many Swiss still struggle with the very notion that they too are European. The Swiss have yet to learn that neutrality is not a better option than a sternly worded statement of grave concern. Worse, in this fifth year of Russia's brutal war of aggression against Ukraine, the gift of a country small enough to focus a national conversation around a single topic has been misspent on what former US National Security Advisor HR McMaster liked to call "strategic narcissism".

Whether the latest initiative passes or fails, as it likely will, is becoming increasingly irrelevant. There will be another one and another one and one after that and still some further spin beyond parked on the horizon. Of this, one should have little doubt. Next year, there will be some fresh absurdity. Beyond self-satisfaction or even gratification, who is served by this? Expecting an aggressor to care about one's feelings is genuinely a recipe for being smacked by a bully. But any European aggressor is well served by a population that cannot think beyond its nose and that refuses to be a member of the major clubs of the day. Put simply, neutrality is not all it is cracked up to be. To an outsider, it is all too clear that this coveted concept has become a vulnerability as a liability disabling forward progress.

Disagree or discontent? You can address any comments or concerns to our inbox and the person responsible at amanda.rivkin@securitydialogue.org. Otherwise, welcome to the Alpine Security Monitor, an official publication of the Bern Security Dialogue.

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PORT DJIBOUTI – Germany pulls back two warships slated for Hormuz mission

Defense News reports last Friday that the Germany is "pulling back two navy ships from the Gulf of Aden sent there weeks ago on stand-by to support an eventual post-war Strait of Hormuz security mission".
The mine hunter Fulda and the Mosel, a support vessel, will instead "redeploy from Djibouti, a European and international naval hub at the southern mouth of the Red Sea" and head "to the eastern Mediterranean, the Ministry of Defense" said last Thursday. European countries had pledged to send naval assets for "a multinational mission for securing shipping in the economically vital Strait of Hormuz". The cooling systems of the two vessels recalled to the eastern Mediterannean rely on sea water and "were not built for the high temperatures of the Gulf of Aden".
One important precondition for the deployment, however, "was that the conflict would ebb to such a degree that none of their ships would come under fire". In Berlin, "hope is fading" that the US and Israeli war against Iran "will end any time soon."

TEHRAN, IRAN – German embassy restricts embassy services, urges citizens leave country

Iran International reports last Friday that Germany "scaled back operations at its embassy in Tehran while again urging its citizens to leave Iran".
While the embassy is open for the time being, visa and consular services are "operating only on an emergency basis".
The German Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was monitoring the security situation in Iran and that the safety of its staff and diplomats was a "top priority". The German government attributed the scaling back of its operations to "restrictions imposed by Iranian authorities on diplomatic accreditations."

BERLIN, GERMANY – Deadly car ramming at Berlin Pride, terror suspect killed

The Wall Street Journal reports Sunday that German authorities were searching for Abdul Ballout, 21, a German national of Lebanese descent who was previously investigated for terrorism, naming him as the primary suspect "in a car-ramming attack that left at least one dead in Berlin" on "the margins of the Christopher Street Day LGBTQ festival". By Sunday, Ballout—or Abdul B. as he was known in the German media due to strict privacy laws—was killed in a police operation, The Washington Post reports.
Shortly before 10 pm local time, "A white van plowed into a crowd of people who were leaving the festival". Additionally, "some passersby sustained what appeared to be knife wounds", with several of those injured reportedly in life-threatening condition. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the incident "a heinous act" in a post on X.
Police had released a photo of the suspect and asked "the public to report any sighting of Ballout". German tabloid Bild was first to report that he "had been detained in Lebanon and extradited to Germany before being convicted of a crime in May" and "has a history of low-level criminality". It is unclear whether his conviction is connected to terrorism offenses nor why he was not in prison instead at the time of the attack.

KARLSRUHE, GERMANY – Germany cannot revoke asylum to Afghans en masse

Reuters reports last Friday that Germany's highest court ruled "that the government could not simply cancel an entire swathe of resettlement places promised to Afghans, and that each case must be considered individually."
Instead, the Constitutional Court sided with an Afghan woman and her two sons who were "selected in 2021 for admission to Germany under a 'human rights list' set up by the previous government after the Taliban returned to power."
The Interior Ministry sought to revoke asylum en masse last December, "voiding about 640 such promises without examining the individual cases". The court said it "breached a constitutional ban on arbitrary state action".

ROME, ITALY – PM Meloni calls for Spain to be booted from Schengen over Ceuta migrants

Politico reports Friday that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and other senior politicians "called for Spain to be kicked out of Europe's Schengen zone" after "thousands of migrants reportedly forced their way into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta."
In a story that will sound familiar to North American readers who recall the migrant caravans and the ensuing polarization that resulted, "Images of people entering the Spanish territory on the coast of Morocco have been amplified on social media, drawing a furious reaction from anti-migration campaigners and politicians."
In addition to Meloni, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani "called for the suspension of the Schengen agreement, or for Spain to be kicked out of the free-travel zone." While 29 countries participate in the Schengen zone, some countries have already reinstituted border checks, such as Italy with Slovenia, citing migration and terrorism as the justification.

PARIS, FRANCE – France orders expulsion, seizes assets of Russian propagandist

Le Monde reports Friday that France has frozen the assets of Xenia Federova, the former RT France turned BFMTV correspondent, a channel in billionaire Vincent Bolloré's media empire, for six months.
The lady is already facing an expulsion order and was ordered by the Interior Ministry on Wednesday to leave France. She was placed under house arrest after being notified of the order and must report daily to a police station.
On X, Federova called it "censorship" and "political pressure". By contrast, France's Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told BFMTV that Federova's continued presence in the country is an "attack on the fundamental interests of the nation".

CAP FERRET, FRANCE – France evacuates entire Cap Ferret peninsula beloved by tourists

CNN reports last Friday that "French authorities ordered the complete evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula on Friday, launching boats to help rescue people" from the popular tourist destination in southwestern France.
Evacuation boats moved from three piers to take stranded locals and tourists, demonstrating "the severity of the wildfires currently ripping across parts of southern France and elsewhere in Europe". French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 40,000 people have been evacuated from Cap Ferret. Only one road traverses the "Hamptons-like" cape, "making evacuation a priority in case fires cut off access to this road."
Another wildfire is burning 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Cap Ferret, already forcing the evacuation of 23,000 people.

VIENNA, AUSTRIA – Austria plans to extend military service from six to nine months

Reuters reports Monday that the Austrian government "plans to extend military service to nine months from six to adapt to a security landscape changed by the war in Ukraine".
While Austria's military has "for decades" served "as a kind of civilian protection force," the idea that it might "stop advancing foreign troops" is new, kind of.
It is also an acknowledgement that "New threats have also emerged" while not acknowledging that it is many of the same old threats and many in the security establishment in the country do not see those things as threats, per se. The coalition government is nonetheless framing the extension of service as a question of "self-reliance and protection of the population."

BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss government refutes US 'forced labor' claims over tariffs

The Wall Street Journal reports last Friday that the Swiss government "refuted US allegations over forced labor after the Trump administration imposed a new 12.5% tariff on imports of Swiss goods." However, on Thursday Swissinfo reports, "In 2025, 532 victims, mostly women, received support from aid organisations" specializing in human trafficking and sexual exploitation, with victims originating in 79 countries.
Switzerland said the country "rejects the allegations made in the context of these investigations" and had raised the issue in bilateral talks with the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR). Last Thursday, the US imposed fresh tariffs it said were linked to combatting forced labor of between 10% to 12.5% on 60 nations. The USTR said in a statement that the tariffs were due to a "failure to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor."
The new 12.5% tariff on Swiss goods is higher than the 10% tariff imposed on the EU, placing the country "at a competitive disadvantage".

BELLINZONA, SWITZERLAND – Bank fined for ex-Uzbekh first daughter's money laundering

Swissinfo reports Monday that "The Swiss Federal Criminal Court has fine the Geneva-based private bank Lombard Odier CHF3 million" ($3.7 million or €3.2 million) "in the money laundering case involving former Uzbekistan President's daughter Gulnara Karimova."
A former banker at Lombard Odier was convicted of aggravated money laundering and sentenced to a 24-month suspended sentence in addition to the bank itself being fined, however Karimova and an associate saw proceedings against them personally dismissed, though the cost of the court and her lawyers "will be deducted from the seized assets." Lombard Odier has "announced its intention to appeal."
Karimova's father Islam "ruled Uzbekistan with an iron fist for more than 25 years following the collapse of the Soviet Union." She is currently in jail in Uzbekistan "where the authorities refuse to allow her to leave the country" and her co-defendant, once regarded as her "right-hand man", currently resides in Russia "as he has been permanently prevented from travelling to Switzerland through no fault of his own."

Stay safe and very neutral, very concerned!

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