Canada, Feb 13, 2016 -Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s sweeping sanctions relief for Iran will be a boon for Canadian businesses, but thawing relations between the two countries is not without risks for the Liberal government, say experts.
Stéphane Dion, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, lifted virtually all sanctions against Iran last week, paving the way for non-military exports to a country that has long been seen by the West as a pariah state
There are fears that some of that money could be used by the regime to prop up its interests in the region, including elements deemed by Canada to be unsavory at best and terrorist organizations at worst: Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria and Shia militias in Iraq.
Conservative foreign affairs critic Tony Clement has called the government’s move “irresponsible” and “disappointing.”
“We all know Iran’s record of support for Hezbollah and Hamas, its constant agitation in the Gulf region, especially in Bahrain, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, as well as the continuing calls for the destruction of the state of Israel, and its denial of the Holocaust by the supreme leader,” Clement said after Dion’s announcement.
Dion has said Canada “still has a lot of suspicions” about Iran and is re-engaging with its “eyes open.”

Canada-Iran relations ’booby trapped’

Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper ’booby trapped’ Canada-Iran relations, experts say, making it difficult for Justin Trudeau to restore diplomatic ties with the Islamic republic.
If Trudeau formally restores relations and reopens the embassy in Tehran as he has said he wants to do, he will have to reconcile that position with Canadian laws that are designed to prevent that very thing from happening.
The Harper government left Canada-Iran relations “booby trapped,” Thomas Juneau, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa and a former Middle East analyst for the Canadian Armed Forces, said in an interview with CBC News, because it branded Iran the greatest threat to world peace, formally declared the country a state supporter of terrorism and drafted legislation allowing Canadians to sue Iran for compensation for terrorist acts.
Canada broke off ties with Iran in September 2012 and closed the embassy in Tehran, citing concern for the safety of Canadian diplomats and staff. Iranian diplomats in Canada were also expelled from Ottawa.
Trudeau’s cabinet can remove Iran from the list of state sponsors of terrorism with the stroke of a pen, but it will face political pushback to such a move, because, as Juneau put it, “that would be factually inaccurate” given Tehran’s ties to Hezbollah.
It’s unlikely Iran would be open to restoring diplomatic relations with Canada unless it takes some of its anti-Iran laws off the books.

Source: www.cbc.ca