Canada Continues to Send Positive Signals to Iran

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday expressed openness to restoring diplomatic ties with Iran, four years after Canada shuttered its embassy in Tehran.

Such a move would be a reversal of the foreign policy set by the previous Tory administration, which had vowed to keep its sanctions regime against Iran after a preliminary deal on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program in 2013.

Trudeau said Iran had made “significant movement towards respecting international expectations” regarding the dismantling of parts of its nuclear program that the West feared could have led to the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

“That is something positive and I expect there will be (diplomatic) links now between Canada and Iran,” he said.

“We will certainly be discussing that further at a cabinet meeting in the coming weeks,” he added.

Canada broke diplomatic ties with Iran in September 2012. At the time, the then Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird did not cite a specific incident for the breakdown in relations but issued a strongly worded attack on the Islamic Republic's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, its "incitement to genocide" against Israel, and its leaders' failure to account for their nuclear program.

In July, Iran and global powers reached a deal in Vienna that saw sanctions lifted this weekend. Trudeau took office in November last year.

Political re-engagement with countries such as Iran, which had seen deteriorating bilateral relations under Harper, was among Trudeau’s most significant campaign pledges on foreign policy.

The Canadian Prime Minister’s recent remarks came a day after Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion told the Globe and Mail newspapers that Ottawa is yet to decide "in a timely fashion" on lifting sanctions on Iran.

"Because if other countries move before us, it's not a way to help our industry," he said, adding that Canadian sanctions alone would not be very effective.

Iran is expected to welcome any move by the Canadian government to normalize diplomatic relations, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on January 12.

"It was not Iran that cut bilateral ties and it will welcome any step by the Canadian government to resume ties and will reciprocate with a proper response," Hossein Jaber Ansari said in a press conference held in Tehran.