Canada says its ambassador to Iran has been expelled

Comes a day after Iranian charge d'affaires expresses frustration that country's overtures to Canada being ignored.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
mundy 88 (photo credit: )
mundy 88
(photo credit: )
Iran has ordered Canada's ambassador to leave the country, the Canadian foreign minister said late Monday, calling the move entirely unjustifiable. Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier suggested the expulsion of Ambassador John Mundy, who was recently appointed and yet to have his credentials accepted, was a tit-for-tat move by the government in Teheran. Canada and Iran have tried to come to an agreement on an exchange of ambassadors for some time, but Canada is not willing to accept the candidates Teheran has proposed thus far. "Iran has been refusing to let our ambassador present his credentials and thereby fully assume his duties," Foreign Affairs spokesman Shaun Tinkler said. "They've decided to downgrade our relations." Canada criticized Iran in response. "Iran hasn't measured up out to standards for full and normal partnership for some time given their human rights record, the Kazemi case, the nuclear issue," Tinkler said. The diplomatic slap came one day after the Iranian charge d'affaires expressed frustration that his country's overtures to Canada were being ignored by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government. Seyed Mahdi Mohebi that he has twice asked for a resumption of high-level contacts up to the foreign minister level. Iran-Canada relations have been frosty since former Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor helped spirit Americans out of the US Embassy in 1980 before they could be taken hostage shortly after the Iranian revolution. The Foreign Affairs statement says Ottawa will continue to monitor the well-being of the other embassy staff in Teheran. Bernier says the Canadian Embassy in Iran will be now headed by the charge d'affaires. Both countries will continue to maintain embassies in the respective capitals and conduct normal operations, according to the release. Calls to the Iranian Embassy were not immediately returned. Recently, Iran's supreme court ordered a review of the death of Zahra Kazemi, the Canadian photojournalist who died in custody after being arrested outside of a Teheran prison in 2003. After her death, a committee appointed by then-Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, a reformist, found that Kazemi, 54, died of a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage caused by a "physical attack." Prosecutors filed charges against a secret agent who interrogated Kazemi while she was in custody, but those charges were later dropped. The more conservative judiciary rejected the presidential finding, saying that Kazemi died in an accidental fall when her blood pressure dropped during a hunger strike. A former Iranian army doctor has said he examined Kazemi and observed injuries that could only have been caused by torture and rape. The doctor later received political asylum in Canada. Mohebi, the Iranian charge d'affaires, said he hoped a resolution of the case would lead to a warming of relations. Canada recalled its ambassador in 2003 to protest how Iran was dealing with the case. "Iran hasn't measured up to our standards for full and normal partnership for some time given their human rights record, the Kazemi case, the nuclear issue," Tinkler said. Iran is embroiled in a standoff with the West over its nuclear program. It has refused demands to halt uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to manufacture fuel for nuclear weapons. Iran insists it needs enrichment technology to produce fuel for atomic reactors that will generate electricity.