Canceled soccer 'friendly' reinforces Canada-Iran enmity & More News Here

IranSource

May 31, 2022 • 4:06 pm ET

Canceled soccer ‘friendly’ reinforces Canada-Iran enmity

By
Abbas Qaidari

A deliberate pleasant match between the nationwide soccer groups of Iran and Canada in Vancouver on June 5 was supposed to cut back tensions between the 2 nations. Instead, it wound up being canceled after setting off a firestorm of criticism, including to a litany of grievances between Iran and Canada.

The match was in step with the upcoming 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifiers, however Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had criticized the Canadian Foccer Federation’s resolution to carry the occasion. “I think it wasn’t ideal for inviting the Iranian soccer team to Canada. But that’s something the organizers will have to explain,” Trudeau stated on May 17. 

On May 26, the Canadian soccer federation announced the cancellation by way of social media with out offering any clarification. 

The principal motive for the controversy is the nonetheless unresolved matter of the Iranian shootdown of Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 because it took off from Tehran on January 8, 2020. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) later admitted firing the missile that took down the airplane, alleging it was an accident that occurred in confusion, following an Iranian assault on US forces in Iraq within the aftermath of the US assassination of IRGC General Qassem Soleimani.  A spokesman for the Association of the Victims of Flight 752 of Ukrainian Airlines had criticized the match, saying that “Families who had lost loved ones considered the game a slap in the face.” All 176 passengers and crew, together with fifty-seven Iranian-Canadians, died within the crash. 

Opponents of the Iranian authorities launched a large-scale marketing campaign supporting the revocation of the match. The Iranian opposition argued that internet hosting the Iranian workforce was equal to welcoming terrorists to Canada. Meanwhile, many within the Iranian-Canadian group welcomed the competitors, and greater than twenty-seven thousand tickets have been offered in simply the primary hour.

Furthermore, a distinguished opponent of the Iranian authorities posted on Twitter a photograph exhibiting the top coach of the Iranian nationwide workforce with an Iranian intelligence officer, suggesting that this particular person is perhaps associated to the Iranian nationwide soccer workforce. Mahmoud Khazein was needed by the FBI final 12 months for making an attempt to kidnap an Iranian ladies’s rights activist in New York. The photograph was allegedly taken throughout a party in Tehran and it additionally incorporates a well-known Iranian performer and actor, which exhibits that many celebrities have been current on the celebration and doesn’t essentially imply that there’s a systematic connection between Iranian soccer and Iran’s intelligence group.

The Canadian Football Federation initially defended its resolution to carry the match: “At the Canadian Football Federation, we believe in the power and miracle of sport to bring people with different cultural backgrounds and political beliefs closer together. Iran is a member of FIFA and one of the thirty-two teams present at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Accordingly, the Canadian Football Federation will follow all international rules for holding this [friendly] match.”

But, with the federation’s current resolution, it’s clear that it lastly succumbed to stress from the Iranian opposition and supporters.

Relations between Iran and Canada have been troubled for almost twenty years following the killing by intelligence officers of Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian photographer, whereas in jail. 

The Conservative authorities of Prime Minister Stephen Harper closed the Canadian embassy in Tehran in 2012, calling Iran the “most significant threat to global peace and security.” Trudeau promised to reopen the embassy in his first marketing campaign in 2013 however hasn’t carried out so.

The Canadian authorities additionally closed the Iranian embassy in Ottawa in 2012, claiming that the Iranian embassy was making an attempt to recruit Iranian-Canadians. “The Iranian Embassy shouldn’t interfere in their choices. Canadian security organizations will act to prevent threats and intimidation of Canadians,” a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird stated in a press release. Kambiz Sheikh Hassan, the then cost d’affaires of Iran in Ottawa, stated in a press release on the time: “We strongly dismiss baseless allegations by [some] media that [the] ‘Iranian Embassy has been recruiting ethnic Iranians in Canada to be of service to Iran.’”

Criticizing the earlier administration’s coverage of severing diplomatic relations with Tehran in October 2016, Trudeau stated: “It is clear that this case would have been much easier to deal with if the previous government had not closed our embassy in Iran for political reasons.” 

The “political reasons” that Trudeau spoke about seem to consult with the closure of the British embassy in Tehran in 2011, following an assault on the embassy by an Iranian mob angered by British sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank. Britain reopened its embassy in Tehran in 2015 as Iran negotiated a nuclear settlement with world powers, however Canada hasn’t. 

When requested in regards to the ongoing deadlock, the Canadian authorities’s official response is “security concerns.” According to the most recent statistics, the Iranian group residing in Canada numbers greater than 2 hundred thousand. A considerable proportion of those individuals are college students and researchers who go to Iran repeatedly to go to their households and may gain advantage from a resumption of Canadian consular providers in Tehran. 

Restoring relations would additionally facilitate direct diplomatic talks between Iranian and Canadian officers to resolve the matter of compensation for the victims of Flight 752. It would allow Iran to pursue circumstances involving individuals who have been charged in Iran for corruption and embezzlement and who fled to Canada. 

Canada and Iran might additionally have interaction in dialogue and cooperation on widespread safety points within the Middle East and restore financial ties if Iran returns to compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal that the Donald Trump administration give up in 2018 and that the Biden administration is making an attempt to revive. 

The lack of diplomatic relations has deepened distrust and misunderstandings between Iran and Canada and created a burden for Iranian Canadians. The soccer match between Iran and Canada was a possibility to restore the harm, however it’s now simply one other missed alternative.

Abbas Qaidari is a researcher on worldwide safety and protection coverage. Follow him on Twitter: @AbbasQaidari. 

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Image: An Iranian vendor carrying an Iran flag and horns whereas Iranians celebrating Iran’s victory over Iraq throughout their 2022 World Cup Asian Zone qualifier soccer match, in downtown Tehran on January 27, 2022. Iran’s nationwide soccer workforce reached the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto)

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