Ottawa on Wednesday listed Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist entity while calling on Canadians in the Islamic country to leave.
“Our government has made the decision to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code,” Canadian Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc told a news conference.
Flanked by Canada’s foreign and justice ministers, he accused the Iranian regime of “support for terrorism” and “having consistently displayed disregard for human rights both inside and outside of Iran, as well as a willingness to destabilize the international rules-based order.”
Photo: Reuters
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly, noting that Ottawa broke off diplomatic ties with Tehran in 2012, urged Canadians against travel to Iran.
“For those who are in Iran right now, it’s time to come back home,” she said.
The terrorism listing bars members of the Revolutionary Guards from entering Canada and Canadians from having any dealings with individual members or the group. Any assets the Guards or its members hold in Canada can also be seized.
Iranian expats and families of the victims of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 — which was downed by Iran shortly after takeoff from Tehran in January 2020, killing all 176 passengers and crew, including 85 Canadian citizens and permanent residents — have long pressed Ottawa to designate the militia as a terrorist entity.
Canadian lawmakers last month unanimously voted to do so.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration had, until now, expressed a reluctance, explaining that a terror listing could be too broad and inadvertently impact Iranians in Canada opposed to the regime.
Kourosh Doustshenas, speaking on behalf of the families of Flight PS752 victims, welcomed the Guards’ terrorism listing, calling it “a huge step forward in the search for justice for everyone who has been a victim of this organization.”
Canada’s blacklist includes about 80 entities such as al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, the Taliban, the Islamic State group and the Proud Boys, a North American neo-fascist militant group.
Ottawa has previously listed the Quds Force, a branch of the Guards, as a terrorist entity, and in 2022 permanently denied entry to more than 10,000 Iranian officials, including members of the Guards.
The US listed the Guards as a foreign terrorist organization in April 2019.
Earlier this month, the EU also sanctioned the Guards for allegedly supplying drones to Russia and its allies in the Middle East.
The decision to add the Guards to Canada’s terror list comes amid tensions between Ottawa and Tehran. Canada and other nations have sued Iran at the International Court of Justice over the downing of Flight PS752.
Tehran has claimed a missile strike on the aircraft was carried out by mistake.
Ahead of the news conference, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland described the Iran regime as “brutal, repressive, theocratic and misogynist.”
OUT OF NIGER: The US joint chiefs of staff chairman is in Botswana for a gathering of African chiefs of defense as Washington seeks to rebuild its presence in the continent The top US general is making a rare trip to Africa to discuss ways to preserve some of the US presence in West Africa after Niger decided to kick out the US military in favor of partnering with Russia in a major setback for Washington. US Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters before landing in Botswana yesterday for a gathering of African chiefs of defense that he was going to speak with several partners in the region. “I do see some opportunities. And there’s countries that we’re already working with in West Africa,” Brown
MONEY MATTERS? Hanoi said the US and Vietnam talked about developing their partnership, which involves significantly more trade than with Russia A senior US diplomat on Saturday held talks in Vietnam and said that the trust between the two countries was at an “all-time high,” just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to Hanoi. US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink said that his trip was unrelated to Putin’s visit on Thursday. Vietnam last year elevated the US to its highest diplomatic status, comprehensive strategic partner, putting it at the same level as China and Russia. The elevation of the US ties suggested that Vietnam wanted to hedge its friendships as Western companies look
LITHIUM BATTERY: Twenty foreign workers, including 18 Chinese, were among the fatalities in the massive blaze that engulfed the Aricell factory in Hwaesong Twenty-two people were killed — including 18 Chinese nationals — in a massive fire at a South Korean lithium battery factory, the fire department said yesterday, one of the nation’s worst factory disasters in years. More than 100 people were working in the factory when workers heard a series of explosions from the second floor, where lithium-ion batteries were being inspected and packaged, firefighter Kim Jin-young told media. In the massive blaze that ensued, 22 people were killed, including 20 foreign nationals — 18 Chinese, one from Laos and one of unknown nationality, he said. “Most of the bodies are badly burned so
A 17-year-old vocational school student from rural China became a celebrity on social media after reaching the final round of a math competition, beating many others from top universities and raising questions about the education system. Jiang Ping (姜萍), who is studying fashion design, finished 12th in the Alibaba Global Math Competition, one of 802 who made it to the final round — an eight-hour test that took place yesterday. A video that included an interview with Jiang got more than 800,000 likes and 90,000 comments after it was posted on social media by Damo Academy, the organizer of the contest. Most