Canada and Iran ease into a new friendship
Baku, January 28, AZERTAC
Canada's new government has said it will lift some United Nations-imposed sanctions against Iran, but experts and activists say further changes in relations with Tehran face legal and political barriers, according to Al Jazeera.
Speaking in parliament in Ottawa, Stephane Dion, the foreign affairs minister, said on Tuesday that Canada was prepared to lift sanctions imposed in response to UN Security Council resolutions on Iran’s nuclear programme.
The UN announced last week that Tehran was complying with the terms of a multilateral deal curbing its nuclear programme and that member states were free to lift sanctions.
Canada will join the United States, the United Kingdom and others in easing restrictions on business and trade with Iran.
But there are other, more sweeping sanctions imposed for different reasons, some by the previous government, led by Conservative former prime minister Stephen Harper.
Harper's administration cut diplomatic ties with Tehran in 2012 and listed Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to reopen state-to-state relations with Tehran during his successful election campaign last year.
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