Iranian Diplomatic Team to Visit Canada

A team of Iranian diplomatic experts will travel to Canada next month to follow up on regular talks to resume bilateral relations, a Foreign Ministry official said.

“So far, five rounds of expert negotiations have been held between the two countries at the level of director generals,” IRNA quoted Mohammad Keshavarz-Zadeh, director general for the Americas at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, as saying on Monday.

“The planning is underway for an Iranian delegation at the level of director general to visit Canada after the [Iranian] New Year holidays [starting March 21, 2018],” he added.

Iran and Canada have not had diplomatic relations since September 2012, when Canada’s former prime minister, Stephen Harper, cut bilateral relations, citing among other pretexts, what he described as “continued threats from Iran to Israel”.

But Canada’s incumbent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has signaled his willingness to reopen the country’s embassy in Iran, as part of efforts to meet a 2015 electoral promise of changing Canada’s foreign policy.

The two countries now maintain interests sections in the embassies of third countries.