Iran has condemned Canada’s choice to record Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group, calling it “an unwise and unconventional politically motivated step.”
The remark got here Thursday from Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani, who added: “Canada’s action will not have any effect on the Revolutionary Guards’ legitimate and deterrent power.”
Tehran reserves the best to reply accordingly to the itemizing, he stated.
Earlier Wednesday, Ottawa listed the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group, a step that would result in the investigation of former senior Iranian officers now dwelling in Canada.
“Our government has made the decision to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code,” Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc informed a news convention.
Flanked by Canada’s overseas and justice ministers, he accused the Iranian regime of “support for terrorism” and “having consistently displayed disregard for human rights both inside and outside of Iran, as well as a willingness to destabilize the international rules-based order.”
The United States took the same step in 2019 towards the Revolutionary Guards, which Western nations accuse of finishing up a world terrorist marketing campaign.
Tehran rejects such claims, saying that the elite pressure is a sovereign establishment liable for safeguarding nationwide safety.
‘Come again dwelling’
Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, noting that Ottawa broke off diplomatic ties with Tehran in 2012, urged Canadians towards journey to Iran.
“For those who are in Iran right now. It’s time to come back home,” she stated.
The terrorism itemizing bars members of the Guards from getting into Canada and Canadians from having any dealings with particular person members or the group. Any property the Guards or its members maintain in Canada may additionally be seized.
Iranian expats and households of the victims of Flight PS752, which was downed by Iran shortly after takeoff from Tehran in January 2020, killing all 176 passengers and crew, together with 85 Canadian residents and everlasting residents, have lengthy pressed Ottawa to designate the militia as a terrorist entity.
MPs final month unanimously voted to take action.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration had, till now, expressed a reluctance, explaining {that a} terror itemizing may very well be too broad and inadvertently impression anti-regime Iranians in Canada.
Earlier this month, the European Union additionally sanctioned the Guards for allegedly supplying drones to Russia and its allies within the Middle East.
The choice so as to add the Guards to Canada’s terror record comes amid tensions between Ottawa and Tehran. Canada and different nations have sued Iran on the International Court of Justice over the downing of Flight PS752.
Tehran has claimed a missile strike on the plane was carried out by mistake.
Source: www.dailysabah.com