Iran nuclear deal a first step
NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar explains why he supports it,
The recently announced interim deal with Iran on nuclear nonproliferation is an important step toward a more peaceful and secure world.
This is a first step, not a final deal. Iran will need to follow up on the words and commitments of the agreement with concrete and verifiable actions. Nonetheless, this deal constitutes real progress on both the specific issue of the Iranian nuclear program and on the broader issue of bringing Iran into the mainstream international community.
As British Foreign Secretary William Hague said following the announcement, the agreement “shows it is possible to work with Iran, and through diplomacy address intractable problems.”
Unfortunately, the Canadian government has chosen to greet the diplomacy and the deal itself with disdain. The most positive comment that the “deeply skeptical” Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird could muster was a backhanded remark on the “earnest efforts” of the negotiators.
Of course, this is the same minister who previously declared that the Iranian elections that brought President Hassan Rouhani to power were “meaningless.” His assessment was a slap in the face of the Iranian political prisoners who had called on their fellow citizens to use the small opportunity provided by the elections to force change.
No one can claim to understand the undemocratic and repressive nature of the Iranian regime better than Iran’s political prisoners. But those same prisoners, and the same Iranians whose protests for change were so brutally repressed in 2009, chose to reject the extremism of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and cast their ballots for a president willing to negotiate concrete, measurable commitments with the West. That was not meaningless.
To be perfectly clear, there continue to be substantive and serious problems in Iran.
This past June, I was proud to receive all-party support for my motion in the House of Commons making Canada the first country in the world to officially recognize the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners in Iran as a crime against humanity.
Tragically, 25 years later, the imprisonment of Iranians for exercising their fundamental rights continues. While I am pleased that some political prisoners have been freed, including Canadian citizen Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, too many people remain behind bars in Iran because of who they are or what they believe. Women face substantial and systemic discrimination. Homosexuality is a crime punishable by flogging and execution. Baha’i leaders and observers have been persecuted and imprisoned.
The risk of nuclear proliferation and weaponization also remains. Israel has every reason to approach the interim deal with great caution. The implementation of this agreement, and any eventual comprehensive deal, will require diligent verification to ensure that the terms of the agreement are met and that the security of Canada’s allies in the region is enhanced. Canada should contribute to this verification process, just as it is assisting the work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in Syria.
International sanctions against Iran have been a necessary response to the threat of nuclear proliferation. Of course, sanctions are effective incentives for change only when there is a prospect that they will be lifted. The interim deal provides for a moderate, targeted, temporary and reversible reduction in sanctions on Iran, conditional on the Iranian government acting on its pledges. This is not blind trust. The Iranian government has a clear choice between peace and prosperity on the one hand, and isolation on the other. President Hassan Rouhani must now follow through on his commitments. The world — and Iranians — will not give him another chance.
But the rigid position of the Canadian government on Iran simply does not reflect reality. Nor does it help Canada’s international influence to be seen as out of touch, guided more by ideology than events. The Bush administration took a similar approach to the reformist government in Iran in the early 2000s. When Iran’s reformists failed to reach a deal with the west, Iran’s extremists were emboldened.
As Stephen Harper travels to the Middle East for the first time as prime minister, he will be visiting a region that has significantly changed since he took office. Not all of these changes have been for the better.
The situation in Syria grows more troubling every day. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, and millions have been displaced from their homes. The Syrian refugee crisis is putting enormous pressure on Jordan and creating significant instability and insecurity in Lebanon, still affected by its own legacy of conflict.
I continue to be disturbed by political violence in Egypt and the deterioration of an effective rule of law following the resumption of military rule. Yet even as we watch the region with apprehension and concern, we must also recognize when there is progress.
The interim deal on the Iranian nuclear program is one such step forward. It shows that the international community can achieve results through hard work and effective diplomatic engagement.
I am proud to support the democratic aspirations and human rights of the people of Iran. I am also proud to support our international allies in their dedicated diplomatic efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation. Sadly, the Conservative government seems too absorbed in its own rhetoric to notice real results — or to play a part in encouraging further reforms.