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| Great White North |
| Harper: 'Nothing would surprise me' in Iranian response |
| 2012-09-10 |
| Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Sunday that nothing Iran does in response to Canada's severing of diplomatic ties would surprise him. Harper also promised that Canada will work through its allies to help three of its citizens still in Iranian prisons. Questions about their fate have become a big issue following Canada's abrupt decision to close its Tehran embassy and expel Iranian diplomats from Canada. An Iranian lawmaker said his government would have a firm response, and a foreign ministry spokesman called Harper's government hostile and racist, and said it was doing the bidding of Israel and Britain. Harper said the diplomats were recalled because of Iran's "capacity for increasingly bad behaviour." Harper said, "So, nothing would surprise me. But that is all the more reason why it's essential that our Canadian personnel no longer be present. Do I anticipate specific actions? No, not necessarily, but as I say, we should all know by now that this is a regime that does not stop at anything. So that's just the reality of the situation." Canada's surprising embassy closure caused reactions across the globe and it topped the websites of two Iranian news agencies. Iran's Fars news agency said the country's parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, cancelled a planned visit to Canada to protest the embassy closure. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman accused Harper's government of "extremist" views and said it was "unwise" for Canada to have set a five-day deadline for Iranian diplomats to leave the country. The Iranian foreign ministry also called the embassy closure "unprofessional, unconventional, and unjustifiable." |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #2 You have five days to get your Iranian diplomats back to Iran. Your recruited agents and networks in Canada and the US can joint them, or you can hand them off to a third country. In either case, we'll be monitoring them closely. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2012-09-10 06:12 |
| #1 The closure was "unprofessional, unconventional, and unjustifiable." Don't forget racist. Maybe somebody told the Canadiens the day the Juice were going to strike. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2012-09-10 05:59 |