Kent: An Attack on Israel is an Attack on Canada

The Honourable Peter KentPic: NULL

Globe and Mail article quoting Minister Kent's comments from Shalom Life

On Thursday, during events marking the 31^st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that Iran has produced its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level. The announcement came just two days after Iran announced that the process had begun.

Ahmadinejad said that Iran is now a “nuclear state”, although he insisted that Iran is not interested in building nuclear weapons.

The announcement on the decision to further enrich uranium has left world leaders uneasy, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who expressed Canada’s concerns regarding the Iranian nuclear program in a press release: “Canada is deeply disturbed by Iran’s decision further to enrich its nuclear material in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions. The regime’s latest moves bring Iran considerably closer to possessing weapons-grade material.”

Shalom Life spoke with the Honourable Peter Kent, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the Americas and MP for Thornhill, regarding the latest development in the Iranian issue. “Canada has been concerned for some time not only about brutal repression of civil rights in Iran but also about the nuclear adventurism and the proclaimed quest of nuclear weaponry by President Ahmadinejad,” said Kent.

He explained that the Harper government’s position is to place further sanctions on Iran, but not unilaterally. “Unilateral sanctions tend to be much less effective than when we impose sanctions in concert with other countries,” explained Kent. “We have had some sanctions for some time on equipment and materials related to the making of nuclear weapons but it may soon be time to intensify the sanctions and to broaden those sanctions into other areas, such as economic areas which we hope would discourage Iran from its current course.”

Kent believes that sanctions could be placed on Iran that would directly target the regime and not the opposition or innocent citizens. “Very often the people who suffer when sanctions are imposed are the most innocent in any society and that is always a consideration. There are a variety of ways that sanctions can be focused on the state, on the government itself and on government ministers, and their finances and other things. Those talks are continuing and I suspect that today’s statement by President Ahmadinejad will add impetus and momentum to those discussions,” said Kent, and added: “I think the realization that it’s a dangerous situation has been there for some time. It’s a matter of timing and it’s a matter of how long we can wait without taking more serious preemptive action. For the moment we’re demonstrating and proclaiming our frustration and concern about the Iranian nuclear program. We hope when Canada hosts the G-8 this year one of the primary points of discussion will be focusing of national attention and possible action on the Iranian regime.”

Kent also said that Canada believes Iran is a threat not just to its own people, but also to the countries surrounding it, including Israel. Being the MP for a largely Jewish constituency as well as having visited Jewish communities in South America and specifically Venezuela, Kent has heard some concerns from the Jewish community regarding Iran. “I hear concerns from Jewish constituents all the time. I was in Venezuela a couple of weeks ago and the community there expressed its concern, not only with events on the ground in Iran, the human rights situation and the threatening nuclear situation, but on the developing Iranian relationship with the government of Venezuela. I met last week in Ottawa with Israel’s finance minister and Israel’s ambassador to Canada and that was another point of discussion. As you know we do not have normal diplomatic relations with Iran. We have what are called controlled relations and we will only communicate with Iran with regard to the nuclear issues, with regard to human rights in Iran, with regard to the case of Mrs. Kazemi and with regard to Iran’s destabilizing effect on the Middle East and with regard to its continuing threats to Israel.”

He expressed Canada’s continued friendship and support of Israel. “Prime Minister Harper has made it quite clear for some time now and has regularly stated that an attack on Israel would be considered an attack on Canada,” said Kent and added that Israel is considered an ally of Canada. “We work with our allies. We regularly convey our concern in a variety of ways, at the United Nations, as well as one on one. Foreign Minister Cannon made a point last year of travelling all the way to Turkey for a regional conference simply so he could confront directly and personally [Iranian] Foreign Minister Mottaki to convey our concern at the time with regards to the brutal repression after the election. But we work with our allies, we work with the international community. We certainly share information and views with the government of Israel and with other democracies. As I say our concern is tangible and we are considering actions with our allies, including sanctions.”

Finally, Kent said that a military strike on Iran is still not an option at this time and would be the last option to deal with the Iranian situation. “There have been observations from a number of governments that say that military action may be an ultimate consideration. But again, Canada is working with all of its allies and with Israel to stay on top of the situation and to try and resolve this peacefully. A military strike is the last possible option but that remains in the broad range of options and unfortunate possibilities.”