The team, comprising executives from the pharmaceutical, green energy and services sectors, was led by Livia Leu, who served as Swiss ambassador to Tehran between 2009 and 2013, the department said.
The four-day visit starting Sunday comes after Iran and six world powers agreed on the outlines of a potentially historic deal aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear drive after marathon talks in Switzerland early this month.
Leu, the head of bilateral ties at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco), had said after the deal that this was a "very propitious" time to visit the Islamic republic.
Switzerland eased economic sanctions against Iran at the start of last year.
Trade between the two countries amounted to 640 million francs ($670 million) last year with the balance heavily tipped in favour of Switzerland.
IRAN
Swiss business team seeks Iran trade deals
A Swiss business delegation travelled to Iran over the weekend for the first such visit in ten years in a bid to expand trade ties, the federal department of finance says.
TRIAL
Danish terror trial begins against Iranian separatists
Three leaders of an Iranian Arab separatist group pleaded not guilty to financing and promoting terrorism in Iran with Saudi Arabia's backing, as their trial opened in Denmark on Thursday.
The three risk 12 years in prison if found guilty.
Aged 39 to 50, the trio are members of the separatist organisation ASMLA (Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz), which is based in Denmark and the Netherlands and which Iran considers a terrorist group.
The three, one of whom is a Danish citizen, have been held in custody in Denmark since February 2020.
Gert Dyrn, lawyer for the eldest of the three, told AFP that in his client’s opinion “what they are charged with is legitimate resistance towards an oppressive regime.”
“They are not denying receiving money from multiple sources, including Saudi Arabia, to help the movement and help them accomplish their political aim,” Dyrn said.
His client has lived as a refugee in Denmark since 2006.
According to the charge sheet seen by AFP, the three received around 30 million kroner (four million euros, $4.9 million) for ASMLA and its armed branch, through bank accounts in Austria and the United Arab Emirates.
The trio is also accused of spying on people and organisations in Denmark between 2012 and 2020 for Saudi intelligence.
Finally, they are also accused of promoting terrorism and “encouraging the activities of the terrorist movement Jaish Al-Adl, which has activities in Iran, by supporting them with advice, promotion, and coordinating attacks.”
The case dates back to 2018 when one of the three was the target of a foiled attack on Danish soil believed to be sponsored by the Iranian regime in retaliation for the killing of 24 people in Ahvaz, southwestern Iran, in September 2018.
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Tehran formally denied the attack plan in Denmark, but a Danish court last year jailed a Norwegian-Iranian for seven years for his role in the plot.
That attack put Danish authorities on the trail of the trio’s ASMLA activities.
Sunni Saudi Arabia is the main rival in the Middle East of Shia Iran, and Tehran regularly accuses it, along with Israel and the United States, of supporting separatist groups.
Lawyer Gert Dyrn said this was “the first case in Denmark within terror law where you have to consider who is a terrorist and who is a freedom fighter.”
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