Call for Response to Canada’s Anti-Iran Move

A lawmaker denounced a recent UN General Assembly resolution sponsored by Canada on the human rights situation in Iran and called for government response to deter such moves.

“The government should revise its foreign policy to prevent such foreign measures,” Mohammad Javad Abtahi also said in an interview with ICANA on Saturday. By a vote of 85 to 35 with 63 abstentions, the United Nations General Assembly on Monday approved a resolution criticizing Iran’s human rights record. Canada was the main sponsor of the resolution, with the United States and the European Union being co-sponsors. Abtahi stressed the need to reconsider a decision to resume diplomatic relations with Ottawa in response to the resolution.

In September 2012, the administration of the former Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, severed diplomatic contacts with the Islamic Republic, shut its embassy in Tehran and ordered Iranian diplomats to leave the North American country, citing, among other pretexts, “continued threats from Iran to Israel”.

Incumbent Premier Justin Trudeau has been trying to normalize ties with Iran as part of efforts to meet a 2015 electoral promise of changing Canada’s foreign policy.