The Swiss charge d’affaires was summoned on Wednesday over Washington’s accusations against Tehran and its ‘warmongering statements’ on the latest developments in Iraq, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s website.

During the meeting with the Swiss diplomat, an Iranian foreign minister’s assistant, Mohsen Baharvand, asked him to convey Iran’s strong protest to the US officials over their “warmongering statements” in violation of the United Nations Charter, the ministry said.

“He (the Swiss envoy) was reminded that Iran is not a country seeking war… but stands against any threat or any unreasonable act and defends itself with all its might,” according to the website.

US officials, including President Donald Trump, are trying to accuse Iran of encouraging the protests underway in Iraq against US airstrikes on bases of Popular Mobilization Units PMU), also known as Hashd al-Sha’abi.

On Sunday, US forces conducted drone strikes on a number of Kata’ib Hezbollah bases in Iraq’s western Anbar province, killing at least 28 individuals and leaving another 51 injured.

Kata’ib Hezbollah is part of Iraq’s PMU.

Following the strikes, the Pentagon issued a statement saying that it had targeted three locations of the Iraqi fighters in Iraq and two in Syria in response to alleged attacks targeting American forces.

The incident led to a massive funeral ceremony for the Iraqi martyrs, followed by a huge rally by thousands of angry protesters who reached the US diplomatic mission in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, chanting ‘Death to America’ and burning US flags on Tuesday.

The protesters further held up signs calling for the US mission to be shut down and for the parliament to order US forces to leave Iraq.

Many protesters have set up tents, announcing plans for an indefinite sit-in until the embassy is closed and the ambassador expelled from the country.

A few hours into the protest, tear gas was fired in an attempt to disperse the crowd.

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“Iranian citizens, particularly elites and scientists, are requested to seriously avoid traveling to America, even to take part in scientific conferences and even having an invitation,” the travel advisory published on the foreign ministry’s website said on Tuesday.

The ministry cited “America’s cruel and one-sided laws toward Iranians, especially Iranian elites, and arbitrary and lengthy detention under completely inhumane conditions” as reasons for the travel advisory.

In April, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif publicly expressed Tehran’s preparedness for a prisoner swap with the US.

Zarif called on Washington to swap all Iranians jailed in the US and on extradition requests from the US, mostly for alleged violations of US export restrictions and sanctions violations, with those imprisoned in Iran.

Iran and the United States swapped prisoners on Saturday.

Iranian stem cell scientist Dr. Masoud Soleimani was released after spending over a year in US detention without any formal charges and American graduate student, Xiyue Wang, detained for three years on spying charges in Iran, was freed in return.

Soleimani, 49, left Iran on sabbatical back in October last year but was arrested upon arrival in Chicago and transferred to a prison in Atlanta, Georgia, for unspecified reasons.

Prosecutors in Atlanta had accused him and two of his former students of conspiring and attempting to export vials of human growth hormone from the US to Iran without authorization, in violation of US sanctions.

Soleimani said American authorities told other inmates he was a terrorist.

The Iranian foreign minister also reiterated on Monday that the Islamic Republic was “fully ready” to exchange more prisoners with the US.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have been rising since President Donald Trump withdrew the US from a 2015 landmark deal and imposed unilateral sanctions against Iran, mainly targeting its oil exports.

Despite Washington’s withdrawal, Tehran remained completely compliant with the deal for an entire year as confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency in several reports, waiting for the co-signatories to fulfill their end of the bargain by offsetting the impacts of the sanctions.

The European signatories, however, failed to fulfill their end of the bargain, prompting Tehran to take a set of retaliatory measures.

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