Canada, other countries condemn alleged Iranian state activity in Europe and North America

Globe and Mail

2 days ago

Canada has joined 13 other countries, including the United States, Britain and France, to denounce what they describe as threatening Iranian state activity in Europe and North America.
Thursday's statement does not detail specific incidents but speaks of attempts by Iranian intelligence 'to kill, kidnap and harass' people.
It says Iranian intelligence is increasingly collaborating with international criminal organizations to target journalists, dissidents, Jewish citizens, and current and former officials.
'This is unacceptable,' said the statement. 'We consider these types of attacks, regardless of the target, as violations of our sovereignty.'
'We are committed to working together to prevent these actions from happening and we call on the Iranian authorities to immediately put an end to such illegal activities in our respective territories,' the statement said.
Its signatories are the governments of Albania, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United States.
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Former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler, who the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says is on an Iranian hit list, said he welcomed Thursday's statement.
'These are standing threats to our sovereignty and to our security. I'm glad to see that the community of democracies is acting in this regard,' he said in an interview.
Last year, The Globe and Mail reported that Iran allegedly plotted to assassinate Mr. Cotler, founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. He also served as Canada's first Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism from 2020 to 2023.
Mr. Cotler, who has previously expressed concerns about Tehran having activated sleeper cells in Canada to carry out acts of violence against opponents of the regime, said he is under threat, but that situation is not something he talks about.
He said that Canada should set up an agency to deal with this kind of harassment and intimidation.
'You're speaking to me about Iran, but we have to realize there's a concerted and increasingly collaborative axis of oppression involving Russia and China as well as Iran,' he said.
Mr. Cotler said he is aware of incidents involving threats against individuals but is not in a position to elaborate.
He did note that the bipartisan United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has raised some of the concerns cited in Thursday's statement.
A commission report released this week accused Iran's government of sponsoring a global campaign of antisemitism that involves recruiting local proxies to carry out attacks against Jewish sites and individuals and by using its international media outreach to promote anti-Jewish ideas.
'Iran's systematic, ongoing, and egregious policies and actions reaffirm the designation as a country of particular concern by the U.S. Department of State,' said the report.
Kourosh Doustshenas, a spokesperson for the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims, said he was gratified by the international statement, but not surprised about the situation the 14 countries are referring to.
'I'm happy to see all these countries get their act together and address this as a united front,' he said in an interview from Winnipeg.
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Mr. Doustshenas's fiancée was among 176 people – 57 of them Canadians – killed in 2020 when Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was hit outside of Tehran by Iranian missiles.
'To be honest with you, I'm not surprised at the content of the statement. It's been very obvious to all the people originally from Iran and living outside Iran and opposing the current regime in Iran being always under the threat,' Mr. Doustshenas said.
He said those threats are largely online. 'I haven't heard of anyone being directly threatened, like a physical threat, as far as I know, at least in Canada, but this is not something unusual in other countries,' he said, referring to Iran or neighbouring countries to Iran.
Mr. Doustshenas said online threats have been reported to the RCMP, but he is not sure about what the national police force can actually do to protect against them.
He also noted that the Iranian regime has threatened the Iran-based family members of Iranian Canadians.
Global Affairs did not immediately respond to offer a comment on the issue. The U.S. State Department press office said, in a statement, that it was not able to provide immediate comment on the matter.