The Canadian embassy in Iran has been accused of being a ‘den of spies' acting for the United States, amid calls from Iran's conservative-dominated parliament to probe the embassy's activities in Tehran.
The daily Urdu newspaper Etemad reported on Wednesday that the Iranian parliament will investigate espionage in the embassy.
If the allegations are proven, the politicians are “determined to shut down the mission”, MP Javad Arian-Manesh was quoted as saying.
The Iranian Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie plans to meet the MPs over the charges, the report added.
“The Canadian embassy represents the ‘Den of Spies', and this is unacceptable for Iranians,” said prominent MP Hamidreza Hajbabai.
According to AFP reports, Mr. Hajbabai claims the Canadian embassy was acting as a proxy for the United States, whose mission has been dubbed the “Den of Spies” since its seizure by militant students in 1979.
Iran and Canada have had strained relations since the death in custody in Tehran of Iran-born photographer Zahra Kazemi in 2003, who was a Canadian citizen living in Montreal. Ottawa has sought UN condemnation of human rights violations in Iran.
Tehran and Washington severed diplomatic ties after the 1979 Islamic revolution when students seized the embassy in Tehran, taking 55 people hostage for 444 days.
On November 21, the U.N. Third Committee passed a Canada-sponsored resolution expressing “serious concern at the continuing harassment, intimidation and persecution of human rights defenders, political opponents, ethnic and religious minorities and other groups in Iran.”
The representative of Iran called the draft a politically motivated exercise which proved that United Nations' human rights mechanisms had been abused and manipulated to address the political interests of a few.
The resolution sparked an angry response from Islamic republic officials, who hit back by proposing a draft resolution accusing Canada of mistreating its aboriginals and immigrants.
In June, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told the Islamic Republic News Agency that Canada was “hiding some spies at their embassy in Tehran and allowing them to escape”.
Mr. Mottaki told IRNA that he warned his Canadian counterpart at the UN General Assembly last year that Canada should be aware of its limits and realize what country it was dealing with.
