Canada court ruling to complicate ties with Iran: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Kaveh Afrasiabi, author and political scientist from Boston, about a Canadian court’s ruling to confiscate Iranian assets under the pretext of alleged involvement in terrorist activities.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: This is not the first time that a court outside Iran rules to confiscate Iranian assets over the country’s alleged involvement in terrorist activities and this is what they accuse Iran of. How legitimate are such verdicts in terms of international law considering that in most cases, there is lack of evidence in supporting the accusations? Can a court outside Iran accuse the country of such things and then demand damages?

Afrasiabi: Unfortunately, the US and now the Canadian courts have given themselves the license to issue such unjust and illegitimate verdicts against Iran that flies in the face of international law and many international law pundits and professors of law in American universities that agree with this conclusion. The Canadian court’s decision has followed the footsteps of the US Supreme Court just last month and is not surprising.

One wonders at this point who’s going to come next as going to be some Europeans, Australia, New Zealand, it opens the Pandora’s box and very untimely too in light of the recent decision by the Canadian government to ease the sanctions on Iran and call for stage by stage dialogue with the Iranian government to restore relations that were unilaterally cut off by the conservative Canadian government in 2012 followed by the infamous decision of revising the sovereign immunity law that allows the Canadian courts to come with these very horrible verdicts against Iran with unlawful seizure of Iranian assets.

And so, this has complicating effects on the future of Iran-Canada relations and if the Canadian government really wants and it’s genuine about restoring relations with Iran, it should do whatever it can to put a stop to these unlawful acts that are self-serving and so forth.

Press TV: So, you just referred to a very good point, Canada was just, it seemed that was beginning some efforts to improve its relations with Iran and expressing its willingness to do so. Considering the latest verdict by Canadian court, what do you think is the role of Zionist lobbies in the West, particularly in Canada itself and in the neighboring US, in pressuring courts and judicial systems in general to issue such verdicts against Iran and other countries that are opposed to the Israeli regime?

Afrasiabi: Unfortunately these courts are under serious political influence and the decisions are politicized. And they are blind to the fact that there is a legitimate Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation that has been going on for decades and they cannot attach acts of resistance to third parties simply because they provide material or moral support to the national liberation movements of the Palestinians. And if we’re talking about Hamas for example, it moved its headquarters or office to Qatar sometime ago. So, Qatar should be liable as well. A lot people know that Saudi Arabia is a leading sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East and beyond and there’s not one iota of action against them. So, there’s hypocritical double-standard operating here and this complicates, as I said, the future of Iran-Canada relations and is a step back.

Press TV: And do you think this verdict would be enforced, I mean, do you think the Canadian court can really achieve anything or it will just remain at that, just a verdict?

Afrasiabi: To the extent that I’m familiar with the research that the courts and so forth have done to locate the Iranian bank accounts and to put a score on them etc, unfortunately I think that there would be some disbursement of the Iranian assets as a result of these decisions.

And there are some lawsuits that are involved here and there could be more because this is like a trial case for other American so-called victims of Palestinian terrorism to come forward and try to collect in Canada and elsewhere since there’s not much Iranian asset in the US. So, this is a very bad omen and sets a bad precedent and the Iranians can of course appeal that decision and go through the appellate process and hopefully reverse that.

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