Friday, 6 January 2012Harper says he is sure Tehran seeking to develop nuclear weapons, international response needed to counter threat.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Iran poses the "world's most serious threat to international peace and security," and opined that a coordinated international response is requisite to confronting Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
"In my judgment, [Iran] is the world's most serious threat to international peace and security," Harper said on Calgary radio station CHQR.
Harper said he was sure Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons.
"The is a regime that wants to acquire nuclear weapons," he said.
The Canadian prime minister said his country was working with its allies to impose strict sanctions on the Islamic Republic in an attempt to counter their bid for nuclear armament.
He insisted that Iran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, an important passage for global oil, underlined the success of Western sanctions. The Canadian prime minister said Iran's threats were a response to the crippling effect of sanctions.
"That's why the regime is lashing out from time to time," he explained.
Harper said sanctions were the right course of action for tackling the Iranian threat, but that a coordinated international response would prove more effective.
He insisted that even Russia and China, two countries that are large consumers of Iranian oil and generally apprehensive to adopt international resolutions regarding the Islamic Republic, agreed that the Iranian nuclear issue is pertinent.
Tensions simmered between the Islamic Republic and Canada this past week, as Tehran called in Canadian charge d'affaires in Tehran, Dennis Horak, to chastise him on Canada's treatment of its aboriginal people.
A Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson called the Iranian criticism absurd, saying it was "regrettable that the regime in Tehran is choosing not to address its own internal shortcomings before resorting to the ridiculous and engaging in this type of preposterous PR stunt."
The Attawapiskat, a First Nation community of over 2,000, declared a state of emergency October 28, 2011, over deplorable living conditions that has forced hundreds to live in overcrowded tents and shacks, according to the Montreal Gazette.
Canada, meanwhile, has joined Western nations including the United States in casting sanctions on Iran, including prohibiting financial transactions with the country.
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Friday, 6 January 2012
Jerusalem Post
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