Canada's Dilemma, The World's Problem

"If the allies are too harsh with Iran there is a risk they could abandon the deal [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal] altogether."
"At the same time, Trump can point to this incident [the shooting down of Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 killing all 176 aboard] and say the Iranians can't be trusted with any weapons. So these three power [Germany, the U.K. and France] really are between a rock and a hard place [trying to convince Iran to honour the JCPOA]."
"[With no diplomatic presence in Iran, Canada finds itself without the capacity] to send a signal by closing an embassy or pulling diplomats."
"This is truly a dilemma in the philosophical sense. There are no good options."
Christian Leuprecht, political science professor, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario

"Trudeau was careful not to call this an act of war or to denounce the Iranians."
"He wants an investigation. But what if dialogue and engagement bears no fruit and Iran stonewalls him?"
"Then the question is how does Trudeau play it?"
Peter Rough, senior fellow, Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives for a news conference on January 9, 2020 in Ottawa, Canada. - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that Canada had intelligence from multiple sources indicating that a Ukrainian airliner which crashed outside Tehran was mistakenly shot down by Iran.  Dave Chan / AFP

When the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Russia and China, with European Union prompting, signed the JCPOA nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, it was with the expectation not that Iran would surrender its ambitions for nuclear weaponry, but that its ongoing research would be stalled for a defined period of time before it would once again resume refining uranium to nuclear dimension potential. The agreement stipulated nothing whatever of the regime's technological refinement of ballistic missiles that nuclear warheads would neatly fit on.

Iran's neighbours, well familiar with the Republic's ambitions to declare itself regional hegemon, with primary influence and command, an Aryan Persian Shiite theocracy firmly in control of a majority Sunni Arab neighbourhood, have good reason to fear Iran's aspirations. They have been largely achieved through threat and the spread of terrorism. Its Republican Guard Corps and in specific the Al Quds Force of the IRGC, has sponsored, weaponized and directed proxy terror groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad along with Yemen's Houthis.

Its alliance with and support for the Syrian Alawite (Shiite) regime of Bashar al-Assad enabled the Syrian president to massacre over a half million Sunni Syrians, internally displace millions of Syrians and create millions of refugees scattering to neighbouring countries for refuge, with millions finding their way to Europe for haven. Iran's infamous public declarations of its intention to destroy the State of Israel hasn't deterred it from taking a place on committees of the United Nations.

 Ukrainian Embassy, Ottawa, Jan. 9, 2020.  Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

The volatile, destructive nature of Iran's ruling Ayatollahs, mullahs and imams have created hellish living conditions for Iranians, all the more so that sanctions have been reimposed on the country by the United States, the 'Great Satan', with the current administration determined to ensure that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons. So, that the Iranian military used a Russian-acquired land-to-air missile to shoot down a passenger jet, deliberately or by misadventure gives a fairly good clue to how dangerous it would be for the world for it to acquire nuclear weapons.

Yet, despite all of this, the West is apprehensive about holding Iran to the same standards of civil behaviour and human rights entitlements as is expected of the rest of the world. How to 'punish' Iran for its vicious transgressions, much less its internal and external terrorism, its ongoing threats to world order, when it already occupies the position of an ostracized, dysfunctional state? Much of the problem lies in the approach of Western countries to the issue of Iran as a violent, threatening misfit of a nation.

Which 'progressive' elements of Western government feel that appeasement and reassurance to the regime is entirely appropriate, failing the most rational test of observers and psychological MidEast interpretation of bully states who view acquiescence to their demands is a sign of weakness, emboldening them to ever greater acts of defiance of civil norms in the belief that their religious beliefs shield them from reprisals and demands to conform to broad social norms and decency.

This satellite photo provided by Maxar Technologies on Jan. 9, 2020, shows the site where a Ukrainian jetliner crashed late Tuesday near the town of Shahedshahr, Iran, southwest of the capital Tehran.

The Canadian Press