Canada is laying the groundwork for a new round of US/Israeli violence against Iran. This week Ottawa claimed Iran is occupying UAE territory, suggested Iran was funding attacks in Canada and signed a security accord that could draw us into the aggression.
On Wednesday Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada believes Iran is “occupying” the islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb. In a joint statement with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Canada’s Prime Minister backed UAE’s position claiming the three small, strategically important islands in the eastern Persian Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz were under Iranian “occupation”.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baqaei denounced Ottawa’s “brazen and interventionist” position. For their part the Iranian Canadian Congress said it “strongly objects to the characterization of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb as UAE territories ‘under occupation’, a statement which undermines Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and risks further unlawful aggression against Iran.”
Even hardline critics of the Iranian government also wrote articles, launched a petition and rallied in Toronto on Sunday against Canada’s position. Some of the opponents of the Islamic Republic pointed out that Ottawa didn’t publish any legal explanation for its support of UAE’s territorial claims over islands Iran has formally controlled since just before UAE’s 1971 creation and prior to the Islamic Republic.
As Ottawa has put Iran’s territorial integrity into question, it has also portrayed a country bombed tens of thousands of times recently as an aggressor. A number of reports linked to Canada’s new National Security Strategy suggested Iran has been attacking Canada (in reality, Ottawa has severed relations, labeled Iran a state sponsor of terror, listed part of its army a terror group, seized its diplomatic assets and imposed dozens of rounds of sanctions in support of a long-standing Zionist/imperial campaign against Iran).
On Tuesday CBC published “Why a spate of gun-for-hire shootings in Toronto were likely paid for by Iran. Attacks on Jewish, U.S. and anti-regime targets fit worldwide pattern of violence.” Despite the bold headline, there’s no evidence presented in the article linking Iran to the shootings. In a complaint to the CBC, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East’s Media Accountability Project noted, “What is not established through the facts in the article is any concrete link to Iran.” (Does anyone believe Tehran benefits to the point of paying random individuals shooting up various institutions in Toronto?)
Politically the CBC story served its purposes. In response, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre reiterated his call to deport Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) operatives and the claims also boosted the anti-Iran angle in coverage of Canada’s new National Security Strategy.
Two days later the front of the Globe and Mail read: “Officials flag unprecedented security threats against Jewish community.” The third paragraph of an article tied to the release of the National Security Strategy mentioned “threats from Iran”. In another story this week, CSIS officials reportedly told Iran International they had “disrupted potentially lethal threats against people in Canada in multiple cases involving Iranian intelligence or proxies.”
Concurrently, Liberal MPs Anthony Housefather and Judy Sgro told the House of Commons Iran was a threat and criminal. Housefather announced a parliamentary petition calling the Iranian government a danger to Canadians while Sgro spoke “in solidarity with the courageous people and political prisoners of Iran” and “the ‘no to execution Tuesdays’ campaign.”
As politicians and media focused on Iran’s purported crimes, Canada hosted the leader of a deeply autocratic regional enemy that’s contributed significantly to violence in Sudan, Libya and Yemen. But there was little discussion of UAE monarch Mohamed bin Zayed’s repression and violence since the UAE is close to the US and Israel and has large wealth funds.
The Carney government signed a trade accord, launched formal negotiations on an extradition treaty and deepened its military ties to a small state with significant US and Israeli soldiers present there. According to the official release, the Canada-UAE Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Defence Cooperation “modernises the Canada-UAE Defence Cooperation Arrangement for enhanced bilateral cooperation on defence, including military education and training, defence policy dialogue, joint exercises, defence industrial cooperation, cyber security, and information exchanges, while creating a Joint Military Committee to guide its implementation.”
UAE has been an important player in the US/Israeli war on Iran and deepening military ties with the federation of seven emirates will draw Canada further into that violence. Through NORAD, officer exchanges, US overflights, arms sales, a base in Kuwait, etc., Canada has already been assisting the US military’s war on Iran.
Expect full-scale aggression to restart after the US congressional elections. On Thursday the Associated Press reported that Washington told allies to prepare for a new round of violence while the Wall Street Journal reported that the head of the US military briefed Trump at the White House on his options for attacking Iran.
Canada is deeply complicit.
Please email the Iranian Canadian Congress' letter calling on Canada to Retract Its Statement on Iran’s Three Persian Gulf Islands
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