Not sure where to place this as it’s a bit of a mixed bag.
The WEF Davos takes place the coming week, it starts Monday.
Israel’s president Isaac Herzog and Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian announced their participation. That sounds like an unofficial meeting between two officials and countries to me. Does it perhaps signal the beginning of the end of (part of) the hostilities?
Meanwile, the peace talks UA’s Selensky announced not too long ago are to take place also in the coming week. Tagi reports (paywall) that he’s expected to be in CH for at least two days.
And in somewhat related news:
For the first time ever the UN’s Palais des Nations in Geneva is closed, closed until further notice. The organisation doesn’t have the money to keep heating and electricty on because about 1/4 of its member haven’t paid their contribution yet, some (including the US) only partially.
While I am overall not a big fan of the WEF as a concept and event... that would be the single best thing for Switzerlands standing in the world and obviously the middle east.
Every year the Swiss air force gets permission to cross the AT border to protect the meeting. I can hear the jets flying low-and-slow patrols over the mountains almost constantly.
Not really a surprise... Germans, Dutch, Malaysians and some others got it since last December... I guess enough people told their contacts in China just how bad their visa system is and how it hurts their tourism and business travel...