On Tuesday, Canadian government officials made their first trip to Tehran since the 2012 closure of the Canadian Embassy in the city. According to CBC News, the visit is meant to help improve human rights in Iran and advocate for Canadians “entangled in the country’s legal system.” This signals that the Liberal Party is following through with their 2015 election promise to reestablish relations with the Middle Eastern country.

FSWC strongly opposes this reengagement of diplomatic ties to the world’s preeminent sponsor of state terrorism, which has openly and repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel, fuels the slaughter in Syria, has been implicated in the Buenos Aires bombing, and supports organized terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.

“It is deeply troubling that the government is willing to reengage diplomatically with a state whose goal is to destroy the Jewish State of Israel,” says Avi Benlolo, FSWC President and CEO. “This reengagement sends the wrong message to the rest of the world – which must find a way to counter the threat of the dangerous Iranian regime, and not stand idly by and allow it to threaten the existence of the Jewish State and the security of the Middle East.”

Last week, an agreement was signed by Russia, Turkey and Iran to develop several “de-escalation zones” and “safe zones” in Syria – including along the Israeli-Syrian border – increasing Iran’s presence in the neighbouring country. This week, top U.S. army general Joseph Dunford met with Israeli military officials to discuss Iran’s growing presence in Syria and threat to Israel, stating that the greatest challenge is the Iranian threat network – which includes the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force and the support they have been providing to Hezbollah.

In a televised speech on Thursday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah stated that any future war with Israel could potentially take place inside Israeli territory. Israel’s Minister of Transportation and Minister of Intelligence, Israel Katz, has urged Americans to impose additional sanctions on Iran and Hezbollah, as both have been receiving aid from Tehran to build more advanced weapons – increasing concern that Iran may be building a powerful front against Israel.

Iran has also been a consistent human rights violator. Most recently, the United Nations passed a resolution condemning Iran over serious human rights violations, including “discrimination and other human rights violations against persons belonging to ethnic, linguistic or other minorities” and “severe limitations and restrictions on the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, or belief.”

Iran’s freedom and peace ranking:

· For 2017, Freedom House gave Iran a freedom score of 17 out of 100, making the country’s freedom status “not free” – meaning civilians have limited to no political rights and civil liberties.

· The country received a 2.411 Global Peace Index score, giving it a country rank of 133 out of 162 for national peacefulness. 

· The Cato Institute ranked Iran 157 out of 159 countries in the 2016 Human Freedom Index, which looks at each country’s level of personal, civil and economic freedom based on data collected in 2014.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) argues that Iranian President  Hassan Rouhani has not delivered on his campaign promise to improve human rights in the country. According to the 2017 Human Rights Watch World Report, executions continue at a high rate for non-violent offenses such as “’insulting the Prophet’, apostasy, same-sex relations, adultery and drug-related offenses.” By October 2016, Iran executed as much as 437 individuals, and at least 49 inmates on death row committed crimes when they were under 18 years old.