Canada closes embassy in Iran, expels Iranian diplomats

[Mazmaz]

So this has kinda been a big deal the last couple of days. My grandmother was affected by this, as closing the embassy in Iran caused her to be unable to get her Canadian visa, and it had to be picked up in Turkey instead.

inb4 internment camps

Baird says Iran viewed as world's 'most significant threat to global peace and security'

Canada has suspended diplomatic relations with Iran and is expelling Iranian diplomats from Canada, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced in a statement today.

Speaking to reporters in Russia, where he's attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-Operation summit, Baird said the government is formally listing Iran today as a state sponsor of terrorism under the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act.

That will theoretically allow Canadians affected by terrorism supported by the Iranian regime to sue.

Later in the day, Baird added Syria to the list of terror-sponsoring states.

“Canada is committed to fighting global terrorism and to holding perpetrators of terrorism — and those who provide them support — accountable for their actions,” Baird said following a news release that officially added Syria to the list.

“Building resilience against terrorism is a priority for our government, and respect for the rule of law prevails in a resilient society,” added Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.

Earlier Friday, Baird denounced Iran in the strongest possible terms.

"Iran is among the world's worst violators of human rights. It shelters and materially supports terrorist groups," Baird said in a news release announcing the formal terror listing, adding: "Unequivocally, we have no information about a military strike on Iran."

Baird said Canada has closed its embassy in Iran, effective immediately, and declared personae non gratae all remaining Iranian diplomats in Canada. Those diplomats must leave within five days. All Canadian diplomats have already left Iran

"Canada’s position on the regime in Iran is well known. Canada views the government of Iran as the most significant threat to global peace and security in the world today," he said in the statement.

The statement cited Iran's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, its failure to comply with UN resolutions on its nuclear program and its threats against Israel.

It also makes reference to Iran's "blatant disregard" of the Vienna Convention that guarantees the protection of diplomatic personnel.

Last November, Iranian students stormed the British Embassy in Tehran and ransacked its offices. Britain's Foreign Office summoned an Iranian diplomat in London amid complaints that Iran failed to provide proper security to the embassy and didn't do enough in response to the attack.

Netanyahu congratulates Canada

Iran hasn't had a full ambassador in Canada since 2007, following a breakdown in relations after Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi was tortured and killed in Iran in 2003.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is asking Canadians in need of assistance in Iran to contact the embassy in Ankara, Turkey. Anyone who needs urgent assistance should call the department's emergency line at 613-996-8885 or send an email to [email protected].

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement congratulating Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the move, calling it a courageous act of leadership.

"The determination which Canada demonstrates is extremely important so that the Iranians understand that they cannot continue in their race to achieve nuclear weapons. This practical step must serve as an example to the international community [as regards to] moral standards and international responsibility," Netanyahu said.

Former diplomat Ken Taylor, who served as Canada's ambassador in Tehran during the 1979 Iranian revolution, says having a presence on the ground in a country is important. If the country's government won't interact, he said, there's still intelligence to gather.

"As a diplomat, I think you never give up. Of course, if it's a breach of diplomatic protocol, if in fact your diplomats are threatened, if in fact a country's conduct is not acceptable, this may proceed from persona non grata to the closing of the embassy," Taylor said.

"Obviously, though, the Canadian government is sending a message. Whether or not this is the best means to send a message is of course up to the government's cabinet. It's more than just a practical or technical severance of the relationship," he said.

'Hostile decision'

A spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, Ramin Mehmanparast, called Canada's decision "hasty and extreme" and said Iran would soon respond, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

On Friday, people lined up outside the mission, waiting to deal with passport and other issues. Eventually, someone posted a sign on the door in Persian saying the embassy is closed.

"Because of the hostile decision by the government of Canada, the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Ottawa is closed and has no choice but to stop providing any consular services for its dear citizens."

One man said he's been in Canada for 25 years but was looking forward to taking his children to see where he had grown up. With the embassy closed, it will be harder to arrange for the papers needed to travel.

"It's not fair. I mean, that's not the way to do it. They should have an office — I don't know how it will solve anyone's problem," Arman Mirshahi said.

"Don't you think there's other way to fight those [diplomatic battles], other than creating problems for me?"

A spokeswoman for a pro-democracy group said they welcome the decision by Baird and that it shows Iranians that Canada stands with them.

"This regime has been killing, executing, torturing, over hundreds and thousands of people, both students, intelligence and other members of [the] community in the country and abroad. It's terrorism. It does not stay in the country — Iran only — but also it's been exported to other countries," said Vahideh Khorram-Roudi of the Iran Democratic Association.

Khorram-Roudi said the regime has threatened her and other members of the group through threats to their family members still in Iran.

Activists called for embassy closure

Pro-democracy activists in Canada renewed calls over the summer for the embassy in Ottawa to be closed.

The calls were sparked by a July news report that said Iran's cultural counsellor in Ottawa, Hamid Mohammadi, suggested Iranian expatriates should be nurtured to be of service to Iran.

Baird issued a warning on July 13, saying the Iranian government has no right to interfere with Canadians who left Iran to build a better life.

"Obviously we're concerned by some of the reports that we've heard," Baird said.

"It is completely inconsistent with any diplomatic mission for the Iranian mission in Ottawa to interfere in the liberties that [Iranian-Canadians] enjoy in Canada. Any police organization will certainly take a look at any serious allegations that are raised in terms of their conduct.

"And obviously my department will watch very closely and will be pleased to hear any representations on anything that the embassy has done that is inconsistent with their function as diplomats in Ottawa."

One of the most prominent voices calling for the closure was Nazanin Afshin-Jam, a human rights activist and the wife of Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

Afshin-Jam's father was imprisoned and tortured in Iran before the family fled, eventually ending up in Vancouver.

[archibaldcrane]

I think it's time for escalation

cut off their maple syrup supply

[Tajin]

Where's the line to sue iranian terrorists?

Really what the fuck is that...

[Mazmaz]

There's also suddenly talk about how Iran is a threat to Canada, of all places.

Iranian diplomat calls embassy closure unwise, hostile

Iran's top diplomat in Canada says cutting off relations is "unwise, uncivilized and hostile" in a letter dated Monday.

Until last Friday, Kambiz Sheikh-Hassani was the chargé d'affairs for the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa. He and 17 other diplomats were declared personae non gratae, meaning their credentials were revoked. They have until Wednesday to leave Canada.

Canada is also closing its embassy in Tehran, Iran's capital. Five Canadian diplomats left the country before Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced the move to cut relations last week.

In a statement, Sheikh-Hassani said Iran strongly condemns the embassy closing, which he calls "inconsistent with the traditional culture and etiquette of Canadian people."

"With no doubt, the decision of the Conservative government to close the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran here in Ottawa and the manner this has been conducted is unwise, uncivilized and hostile," Sheikh-Hassani said.

"This inconsiderate action will certainly create extra burden for our Iranian community here and this very much saddens us."

It's not clear why Canada is cutting ties now. Baird and Prime Minister Stephen Harper cited Iran's alleged support for terrorism and attempted development of nuclear weapons, as well as its support for the brutal regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its calls for the destruction of Israel. They also said they were worried about the safety of Canadian diplomats, although Baird said he has no information about a possible military strike against Iran.

'Intimidation and monitoring of our own community'

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney pointed to the work of Iranian diplomats in Canada as a reason for cutting ties. Speaking Monday to Evan Solomon, host of CBC News Network's Power & Politics, Kenney said the mission in Ottawa was being used for illicit purposes.

"There is licit listening, there is diplomatic listening and then there is national security violations. And there is harassment, and intimidation and monitoring of our own community by forces of a dictatorship," Kenney said.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said he didn't want to comment on the embassy closing, other than to say the government believes Iran and its agencies are a clear and present threat to global security.

"I find it ironic, for a country that supports terrorism like Iran does, that they would consider the closing down of our embassy to be somehow an uncivilized act. Could there be anything more uncivilized than the sponsorship of terrorist organizations, which is what Iran is doing?" Toews said in an interview with Evan Solomon, host of CBC News Network's Power & Politics.

Toews suggested Canadian diplomats were at risk in Iran.

The British closed their embassy last year after protesters stormed it and destroyed some of the offices. Iran was criticized for not providing proper protection.

"We were no longer prepared to leave our diplomats in Tehran because we believed that the Iranians would not respect their security or guarantee their security. It's a country that simply will not respect the Vienna Convention and we had reason to believe that we should no longer be putting our diplomats at this type of risk," Toews said.

The public safety minister didn't rule out the possibility of listing Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist entity.

"We will examine groups, as you indicate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, to determine whether they meet the qualifications of the definition. We look at this every two years and at this point I'm not prepared to say what we're going to do publicly," Toews said.

Sheikh-Hassani says his embassy staff members were working in a difficult environment, and used all available capacity for consular services like passports and visas.

"We assure the Iranian community that this move by the Harper government will be judged in the course of history. However, Iran will make every effort to alleviate your burden arising from this irrational behaviour. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran is already working on possible avenues and mechanisms to be able to restart the consular services rendered to the respected Iranian community and will inform them in due time," he said.

[Ragnus]

Well, good to see the American stupid bug is finally bleeding into Canada. They managed to resist it for a decent amount of time.

[ringthree]

Well, good to see the American stupid bug is finally bleeding into Canada. They managed to resist it for a decent amount of time.

Yeah, Iran is the happy rainbow friend club. :/

[Helm]

Hasn't Canada been talking about ramping up its military?

[Andalusian girls]

well the Iranian regime would certainly know unwise, uncivilized, and hostile actions when they see them

[Pirian]

Hasn't Canada been talking about ramping up its military?

Yeah, they just can't figure out the logistical problem of getting the jet-packs onto the Mounties horses.

[Ragnus]

Yeah, Iran is the happy rainbow friend club. :/

I'm not saying that they are. I'm just saying that some of the lines they're using are similar if not the same as the ones they're using here in the US to justify making people bend over and spread their cheeks just to get on an airplane.

[Kuya]

Speaking of Iran and the USA, i liked this book review on the issue:

Two of the most illuminating chapters in this book are those which recount how reluctant three of America’s most significant allies were

But the 1991 end of the Soviet threat to US interests in the Middle East, and a sense in Tel Aviv that Israel had been more of a burden for the US than an asset in the 1991 Gulf War, led the 1992 Israeli Labor government to embark on a campaign to convince the US that Israel remained a necessary Middle East ally. They did so by portraying Iran as a major threat to US interests in the region. Suddenly Iran’s aggressive rhetoric, tolerated for 13 years, was cast as an indicator of Iranian intentions, and Iran’s leaders were caricatured as “mad mullahs.” “What changed the nature of the [Israeli-Iranian] relationship from a tacit alliance to open enmity was not the Iranian revolution but the geopolitical changes that swept through the Middle East in the early 90s” is how Parsi summarises this momentous transformation.

On this Israel was not alone; they enjoyed support from not only the UK and France, but at least two other important allies, from US counter-proliferation experts, and from “hawkish Clinton-era officials” who, according to Parsi, peopled the White House

Other European allies were readier than Britain and France to rely on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to restrain Iran. They realised how much Iran stood to lose, politically and economically

One other set of allies was also trying to restrict the new President’s open-mindedness: the Gulf Arab monarchies. Their starting-point was more ambivalent than that of Israel. They knew how much they stood to suffer if nuclear tensions were to lead to war with Iran, and so they could see merit in an attempt to lower the temperature. But they too feared a rapprochement between the US and Iran. The consequences, they reasoned, would include enhanced Iranian subversion of the Gulf monarchs’ Arab subjects and Iranian “hegemony” over neighbouring Arab states.

Parsi addresses the question of the willingness of Iran’s Islamic leaders to negotiate at all. It is sometimes suggested that their hostility to the US has become so central to their national identity that cutting a deal would be life-threatening. The reality is more subtle, Parsi suggests. Iranian policy-makers look at the nuclear question through the prism of national security, and not through that of national identity. They believe Iran’s long-term security requires cultivation of the so-called Arab Street, since they believe ordinary Arabs will one day supplant royal elites at the head of the Gulf Arab states. Any deal that involved toleration of Israeli occupation of the West Bank — abhorred on the Arab Street — or acceptance of monarchical subjugation of ordinary Arabs would be a deal-breaker.

These politicians refuse to understand two things. One is that Iranians are conscious of being heirs to one of the greatest of Asian civilisations and are determined to reverse the decline that set in some three hundred years ago, as the Japanese, Turks and Chinese are doing or have done. Realising such an ambitious vision of national regeneration precludes succumbing to coercive pressure from kids who arrived on the block only a few centuries ago and have thrown their weight around rather a lot of late. (This, incidentally, is why a secular democracy, resulting from regime-change, is hardly likely to be more willing than the Islamic Republic to forego the pride and sense of security that almost all Iranians draw from Iran’s nuclear achievements.)

http://www.salon.com/2012/08/30/obam...rse_with_iran/

I liked it because it touches on reasons ranging from those inside the US government, reasons relating to other allies in and out of the region, and the psychology of iranian policitians. It might give some insight to some why diplomacy has thus far not provided much progress with Iran, and why Iran acts the way it does.

[Mazmaz]

You liked the review? Or the book? I might just buy that book. I just remembered the guy gave an interview on the Daily Show I really enjoyed. There's a part 2.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/th...erview---pt--1

[Rhyis.]

Hasn't Canada been talking about ramping up its military?

Our military budget was just recently cut to oblivion.

[mightyg]

Do you think this move had anything to do with the recent attacks on U.S. embassies? Iran had already shown the willingness to let protesters ransack the British Embassy. Think they had intelligence that trouble was brewing soon?

[BaneTheBrawler]

Certainly possible.

[Rhyis.]

CSIS doing their job? Seems unlikely.

[gt_killa]

This was post on fb...thoughts?

[Rhyis.]

It's not exactly far off when talking about the 2003 war. Operation Desert Storm was legit though.

[Drex]

This was post on fb...thoughts?

Thank you for your valued input. We Americans take the feedback of our fellow nations very seriously. We wish to foster an international community filled with educated conversation and progress towards a more peaceful world. We will make our best efforts to implement your suggestions into our foreign policy decisions moving forward. Please give a call to 1-800-ame-rica to let us know how we are doing. Thank you!

Spoiler: show

glass em

[BaneTheBrawler]

People who make these comparisons don't understand (and underestimate) just how systematized and horrifyingly efficient the Nazi's ethnic cleansing was. They do the same for the sheer number of people the Nazis killed.

Uneducated hyperbole is more annoying than normal hyperbole... because people don't understand that they're doing it.