Iranophobic

Guilty as charged.

"The path of nuclear non-compliance will only bring further isolation for Ayatollah Khameini's clerical, military dictatorship. We will continue to look for ways to reduce the negative impacts on the people of Iran, including humanitarian exemptions."
Minister of Foreign Affairs Canada, John Baird

The Government of Canada has proceeded with the imposition of sanctions on over one hundred people and companies linked to Iranian nuclear activities. That would include airlines, banks and investment houses. The total number of individuals and "entities" now on the sanctions list against Iran composed by Canadian authorities stands at close to 600.

Canada earlier rid itself of the diplomatic presence of the Iranian Embassy. It stands emptied of its personnel, all returned to their country of origin. And Canadian diplomats in their turn have returned to Canada, leaving the Canadian Embassy in Tehran void of any Canadian mission and contacts.

While the Iranian Embassy was still operative in Ottawa it was a source of mischief, and interference in the lives of Iranian-Canadians. It also acted full-time as a viral propaganda tool of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and made interventions in Canadian affairs that rankled Canadians. We are well rid of its malign presence.

The government's latest move in tightening sanctions related to an effort "to halt Iran's reckless pursuit of their nuclear-weapons capabilities", in the wake of one failed intervention by the International Atomic Energy Agency after another. Including the failed efforts at mounting conferences with the regime where the UN Security Council plus Germany could come to an agreement with Iran.

All have failed, and it was more than obvious that Iran had no intention whatever of honouring any pledges they made, or seriously entertaining the concerns of the international community respecting Iran's nuclear plans. Iran simply played for time, and did this time and again, complacent with the knowledge that its perceived adversaries would time and again agree to allow it more time.

Canadian exports to Iran have been reduced to a paltry $1-million annually. The trade ban is exclusive of food, medicine, medical equipment, humanitarian goods or technologies to encourage democratic forces aiding Iranians to bypass the regime's restrictions on Internet access. Doubtless Parnoosh dates will still be found in Canadian supermarkets.

Iran has responded in its own inimitable and quite predictable manner, portraying the role of Canada as a lapdog of Israel. As for the Conservative-led government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, it is horribly flawed by its "Iranophobic" delusions. Canada, declares Iran, in a bit of quid pro quo, has an "extremist" administration.

Canada is simply yet another country of the West which has declared sanctions against Iran, one of the world's most reprehensible human-rights-abusive regimes, with the added cachet of supporting terrorism throughout the world, particularly with its military proxy, Hezbollah. Countries in the EU are similarly involved in sanctions against the regime, as is the United States.

And it is most interesting to read that French oil giant Total SA has had criminal charges lodged against it resulting in a fine of $242.5-M, that the company paid bribes to win lucrative contracts in Iran. Papers filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria show that Total paid $60-million in bribes between 1995 and 2004, allowing it to re-enter the Iranian oil and gas market.

Those bribes aided in the landing of contracts with state-owned National Iranian Oil Co. to develop oil and gas fields in the Persian Gulf, and another for the world's largest gas field in South Pars. Since the case was led by both the U.S. and France, the Paris prosecutor's office plans to pursue corruption charges against its oil giant and the chief executive thereof.

But the financial gains realized by Iran, albeit diminished, have aided it in pursuing its support of the Alawite regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as the country dissolves in infrastructure disarray, and millions of Syrians flee the destruction and deadly carnage, as Sunni and Shia indulge in deadly conflict.