Liberal MP Ali Ehsassi, chairman of the Commons overseas affairs committee, is asking on the federal authorities to impose “strict” journey restrictions on Iran’s consultant on the United Nations Aviation Authority in Montreal.
Ehsassi informed CBC Information the federal authorities has employed attorneys to weigh their choices relating to claims that Iran’s aviation commissioner, Farhad Parvaresh, has ties to a terrorist group. Parvaresh denies claims he has ties to Iran’s Quds Power, which Canada lists as a terrorist group.
“In such circumstances, there’s a precedent the place host nations of worldwide organizations can impose restrictions on envoys,” Ehsassi stated, including the federal government is speaking to different nations about Parvaresh.
Canada severed diplomatic ties with Iran in 2012 and expelled its diplomats. Parvaresh is a Everlasting Consultant to ICAO and never an Envoy to Canada. Particular person nations can limit a diplomat’s actions inside their borders, Ehsassi stated.
Because the three-year anniversary of the destruction of flight PS752 by Iranian forces neared on Jan. eight, 2020, protesters gathered exterior the Worldwide Civil Aviation Group (ICAO) in downtown Montreal on Thursday. Some carried indicators calling for Parvaresh’s expulsion, together with Iranian officers with ties to the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
“Proper now he lives in Montreal and is a member of [ICAO]stated protester Mohammad Aminnia, whose fiancee died on flight PS752. “We will not imagine that.”
The IRGC shot down the civilian aircraft with two surface-to-air missiles shortly after takeoff over Tehran. All 176 folks on board died, together with 55 Canadians and 30 everlasting residents. Most had been on their solution to Canada.
![A photo of Mohammad Aminni before a demonstration at ICAO.](https://i.cbc.ca/1.6706014.1673028827!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_780/mohammad-aminni.jpg)
Iranian media exterior Iran have reported on an alleged audio recording by former Iranian International Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. CBC Information has not independently verified the tape.
Persian-language TV channel Iran Worldwide, based mostly in London, UK, reported that the audio recommended that whereas Parvaresh was the top of Iran Air, the previous head of Iran’s Quds Power – Common Qassem Soleimani – used that civilian airline for navy functions .
Canada has labeled the Quds Power a terrorist group, calling it a secret department of the IRGC chargeable for funding, arming and coaching extremist teams.
Parvaresh stated the audio file was “to not be trusted” and insisted he adopted all worldwide requirements whereas he was head of Iran Air.
“I hereby emphasize that I’ve by no means had any reference to the Quds Power earlier than, throughout and after my tasks as CEO of Iran Air,” Parvaresh stated in a press release to CBC Information.
The US Treasury Division Many Iranian business airways warned of this in 2019 “Enabling Iran’s navy help” to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime by delivering “lethal materials, together with arms shipments, prolonging the brutal battle and struggling of tens of millions of Syrians.”
Iran Air additionally confronted the US Sanctions between 2011 and 2016 when designated as an entity owned or managed by the Iranian authorities. Parvaresh was head of Iran Air till 2017 when he moved to Montreal. US sanctions lifted by Obama administration amid Iran nuclear deal talks; They’re Newly launched in 2018.
Protesters in Montreal are calling on the federal authorities to crack down on a Montreal-based Iranian official accused of hyperlinks to terrorism. The households of the victims of Flight PS752, the aircraft that was shot down over Iran almost three years in the past, need him expelled from Canada.
An affiliation representing the households of Flight PS752 victims in Canada has pressed the federal government over Parvaresh 2021 Committee of the Home of Commons and for your self “Investigation report.”
“I believe this man needs to be expelled from Canada and this group,” stated union spokesman Hamed Esmaeilion, whose spouse and nine-year-old daughter died on flight PS752.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran doesn’t need to be a part of this group…”
Requested whether or not ICAO had investigated the allegations in opposition to Parvaresh, the UN aviation authority stated the representatives had been appointed by their dwelling nations and any “investigation into their conduct or efficiency must be performed by their state”.
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra is responding to calls to impose journey restrictions on Iran’s consultant on the Montreal-based Worldwide Civil Aviation Group.
When requested if the federal government was ready to impose journey restrictions on Parvaresh, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra stated no.
“There’s lots of work being executed and I am not going to prejudge a solution to a query the place we take a look at all of the instruments which are accessible to us,” Alghabra informed visitor host Catherine Cullen on CBC energy and politics.
The Alghabra workplace stated the federal government, as an ICAO host state, is obliged to grant diplomatic privileges and immunities to the Iranian consultant in Montreal.
Parvaresh’s expulsion would “problem Canada’s neutrality as a bunch nation and sure undermine Canada’s aims at ICAO, together with these associated to flight PS752,” the Alghabra workplace stated in a media assertion.
The federal government has vowed to carry Iran accountable for the destruction of flight PS752. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke privately to the victims’ households on Friday forward of Sunday’s anniversary.