PM a ‘real statesman’ for hard line on Iran
Severing of ties sets example for other countries, Netanyahu says
NEW YORK – Canada will not set a “red line” that could trigger military action against Iran to stop its development of nuclear weapons.
“Canada will not be publicly setting red lines,” a senior Canadian government official said Friday. “That is for others to do. We will continue to work with our allies to find a peaceful resolution on Iran.”
The statement came after Prime Minister Stephen Harper met Friday morning with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called Harper a “real statesman” for his hard-line stance on Iran, even though it stops short of setting a red line.
“I think the work you did severing ties with Iran was not only an act of statesmanship but of moral clarity,” Netanyahu told Harper at a meeting here of the two leaders.
He said Harper’s decision to close the Canadian Embassy in Iran and expel Iranian diplomats from Canada sets a “great example” for other nations.
Netanyahu told the United Nations Thursday that the world has to set a “red line” on Iran’s nuclear program. He said that line will be the enrichment of uranium that could be used to manufacture nuclear weapons. If that line is crossed, the Israelis say the world will have to take military action to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons.
“We’ve heard Iran talk about destroying Israel, even now, here at this current round of the UN General Assembly, and the fact that you took such clear, decisive steps is a great example to be followed by other nations, many of which attended a conference in Tehran and said nothing,” he said.
Before entering private talks with Harper, Netanyahu called him “a great champion of freedom and a great friend of Israel.”
Harper replied that Canada “has not been shy about warning the world of the danger the Iranian regime ultimately presents to all of us.
“We want to see a peaceful resolution and we work closely with our allies to try to alert the world to the danger this presents and the necessity of dealing with it.”
U.S. President Barack Obama has also refused Israel’s request to set a red line. Obama recently declined Netanyahu’s request for a face-to-face meeting, claiming he talks to him regularly by phone and does not need a meeting.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney regularly criticized Obama for refusing to meet Netanyahu. Romney claims this shows that Obama’s support of Israel is weak.
Netanyahu has been criticized in the U.S. for trying to use the election to put pressure on Obama to give Israel the go-ahead to attack Iran.
Harper shunned the opening of the UN General Assembly on Thursday, speaking instead to the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, founded in 1965 by a prominent New York rabbi. The foundation awarded Harper the World Statesman Award.
Harper told a black-tie ACF fundraising dinner of about 900 people at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue Thursday evening that the world has to do more to isolate Iran, which is a regime “where evil dominates.”