OTTAWA – Maintaining sanctions on Iran will only hurt Canadian companies for example Montreal-based airplane manufacturer Bombardier, says Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion.
Dion said Tuesday that Canada will lift a number of sanctions on Iran, while leaving some others in place, after that country’s historic nuclear cope with six major western powers earlier this year.
That’s the same approach accompanied by Canada’s allies, including the United States and the Eu.
Iran is anxious to do business with the West, as its president tours Europe signing deals and searching for new ones. That includes buying aircraft; Iran says it has reached an offer to buy jets in the French consortium Airbus.
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“If Airbus is able to do it, why Bombardier would not be able to do it?” Dion said. “In which way (is it) helping Canada, or even the Iranian people, or Israel, or anyone that Canada is hurting its very own industry?”
The opposition Conservatives still push the Liberals to maintain a hardline policy towards Iran, including sanctions and keeping its embassy shuttered in Tehran.
“The intention of the government Liberal government to lift sanctions against Iran is 180 degrees within the wrong direction,” said Conservative foreign affairs critic Tony Clement.
He said Canadian companies “will find plenty of other places in the world to work where the country is not a state sponsor of terrorism.”
The former Conservative government severed diplomatic relations with Iran this year and expelled Iranian diplomats from Canada.
Dion said Canada would be isolated from allies if it maintained sanctions against Iran. He said it’s time for Canada to speak to countries it doesn’t necessarily agree with.
“If you have a quarrel having a regime … you’re employed difficult to be sure that you might find improvement,” said Dion. “It’s what our allies did in negotiating with Iran a contract that is good for the planet.”
Dion has also said the time has come to open diplomatic dialogue with Russia, prompting more criticism from Tory MPs, whose former government shunned Russia because of its actions in Ukraine.
The Liberal foreign policy moves amount to a reversal of previous Conservative actions. On Russia, former pm Stephen Harper conspicuously avoided talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin, unlike many of his fellow western leaders.
Harper snubbed Putin in the 2014 G20 summit in Australia until an opportunity encounter forced him to briefly shake the Russian president’s hand while telling him, to his face, to “get free from Ukraine.”
Dion said Canada can build relationships Russia “inside a cautious way” and “when we have common interest” for example in the Arctic, while still being supportive to Ukraine, a part of which Russian-backed forces have unilaterally annexed.
“We have a large amount of disagreements with the government of Russia, but it’s certainly not the best way to stop to consult with them once the Americans speak with them and all sorts of Europeans, the Japanese — everybody except Canada.”
Clement said that policy amounts to Canada “turning its back on the people of Ukraine” and “playing footsie with Putin.”
Clement asserted when the Conservatives were in power, they had a “reality-based” foreign policy towards Russia’s aggression in Eastern Europe.
