The Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail reported on Saturday, 25 Bahman, that Canada is seeking regime change in Iran. The report also said Ottawa has announced additional sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Quoting Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand, the newspaper wrote that Canada wants a change of regime in Iran.
She said, “We will not restore diplomatic relations with Iran until regime change occurs. That’s it.”
Anita Anand made these remarks during her attendance at the security conference in Munich. On Saturday, Munich, Toronto, and several other major cities around the world saw large demonstrations by Iranians opposed to the Islamic Republic.
Canada’s foreign minister also said that seven additional individuals linked to the Iranian regime have been sanctioned.
Those sanctioned include Reza Hamidi Ravari, an agent of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry; Mohammad-Reza Ansari, a senior official of the IRGC Quds Force; Naji Sharifi Zindashti, head of the “Zindashti Network,” a transnational organized crime group cooperating with Iran’s intelligence ministry; Ali Esfanjani Mokhber, facilitator and associate of the Zindashti network; Mohammad Abdulrazzaq Konfani, associate and intermediary of Mohammad-Reza Ansari; Nihat Abdulqader Asan, logistics planner and collaborator of the network; and Mohammad-Reza Naserzadeh, facilitator and former employee of the civil registry office at the Iranian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
The Canadian government says that with the new measures, a total of 478 individuals and entities connected to the Islamic Republic—across its security, intelligence, and economic structures—have now been sanctioned. Most of these sanctions have been imposed since 2022.
According to The Globe and Mail, since the start of the recent protests in Iran, members of the Iranian diaspora in Canada have been pressuring Ottawa to take action toward regime change.
Diplomatic relations between Canada and the Islamic Republic were severed in 2012 during the premiership of Stephen Harper, who had criticized Iran’s human rights record.
