The Swiss government announced this Friday (20) that it will not issue licenses for companies in the country to export weapons to the United States.
According to information from Reuters, Bern said that the measure was taken due to the country’s principle of neutrality and the American war (alongside Israel) against Iran, which began on February 28.
“The export of war material to countries involved in the international armed conflict with Iran cannot be authorized while the conflict continues,” the Swiss government said in a statement. “The export of war material to the US cannot currently be authorized,” he added.
During the Iraq war (2003-2011), Switzerland had already vetoed arms exports to the United States and other countries involved in the conflict, as well as the overflight of war-related aircraft in Swiss airspace, a measure it has now repeated.
Recently, the Swiss government reported that it had rejected two U.S. overflight requests for flights related to the war against Iran, but allowed three others.
According to data from the European country’s Secretariat of State for Economic Affairs, the United States was the second largest buyer of military material from Swiss companies in 2025, in exports totaling 94.2 million Swiss francs (around US$120 million).
The United States, however, should not have any difficulty replacing the weapons it had been acquiring from Switzerland: according to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), purchases from the European country represented a minimum percentage of American arms imports in 2025, which totaled US$3.78 billion.
The largest arms exporter in the world, the USA was only the 61st importer in this sector in 2025, according to the OEC.
