Canada's Foreign Interference Commission To Review Adding Iran To List
Canada's Foreign Interference Commission is set to decide on adding Iran to its list of foreign governments meddling in the country's internal political affairs.
Canada's Foreign Interference Commission is set to decide on adding Iran to its list of foreign governments meddling in the country's internal political affairs.
In September, Canada launched a public inquiry into the interference of foreign governments, particularly Russia, China and India, in the country’s federal electoral processes and democratic institutions.
At its meeting on Wednesday, the commission hosted representatives of the immigrant communities from Iran, Russian, China and India.
Canada-based Iranian dissident Hamed Esmaeilion warned Iran should be included in the list of the countries to be investigated by the commission.
Esmaeilion, who attended the commission’s meeting as the representative of the families of victims who perished in the downing of a Ukrainian airliner by the IRGC in 2020, said, "Although Iran’s name is not yet on the list of the commission, I attended the meeting to discuss Tehran’s attempts to interfere with Canadian affairs."
He told Iran International that there are institutions affiliated with the Iranian regime which operate in Canada, saying, "These institutions are in the minority but try to influence Canada’s macro policies."
Should Iran be added to the list, Canada’s security and intelligence agencies will be obligated to provide the commission with confidential information so that it can decide about Iran’s possible role in Canada’s domestic policies, especially 2019 and 2021 elections.
In November, Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) warned that Iran, Russia and China are likely to plan to influence the upcoming elections in the US and other countries in 2024.
Last month, Canadian-Iranian lawmaker, Ali Ehsassi, called for an inquiry about Tehran’s potential interference in the country’s elections.
“Given the catalogue of malign and illegal activities committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran on Canadian soil, it would be naïve to believe that the Iranian regime has any compunction to shape public opinion in Canada,” he said in a letter to the Foreign Interference Commission, calling for soliciting testimony and relevant documentation from Iranian-Canadians and others with a substantial interest in the proceedings.
At least 767 Iranians were executed in the year ending March 2024, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). That is more than double the figure for the year ending March 2022, when 333 were executed. Some human rights reports have mentioned a slightly higher numbers.
Many human rights activists say the executions have very little to do with justice and are designed primarily to ‘set examples’ and instill fear in the wider society to make it easier to control. At least eight people were hanged over trumped-up charges related to the nationwide protests of 2022, with several more protesters currently on death row.
A recent Amnesty International report further underscored the severity of the situation, revealing that from January 1, 2012, to July 31, 2023, over five thousand individuals, including at least 57 children, were executed in Iran.
It is widely believed that most executions in Iran are drug-related. There’s little trust in official accounts, however, since there’s no transparency and no real due process. So activists say they fear that the regime may use criminal charges as cover for political cases, especially if the accused is from the ‘periphery’ and lacks support networks to follow and publicize their case.
The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Iran has stated that the number of executions of ethnic and religious minorities in Iran is disproportionately high.
According to human rights watchers Hengaw, in 2023, about 4 out 10 of all executions have been Baluch (183) or Kurd (151). Both ethnic groups are highly active politically, and both played parts in the most recent wave of protests (2022) that was far greater than their size in Iran’s population.
Iranian judiciary officials routinely deny any conflation of dissent with criminal activity. When questioned by Western journalists about executions or human rights abuses, Iranian officials consistently maintain the official stance that the judiciary operates independently and is not answerable to the presidential administration.
While the latter claim holds some truth, the former does not. In reality, Iran’s judiciary primarily serves as a tool to suppress dissent, a role it has fulfilled since the inception of the regime in 1979. Even constitutionally, the judiciary lacks true independence, as its head is appointed and dismissed by the Supreme Leader.
It's no surprise, then, that the judicial system tends to align closely with the desires and directives of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
In July 2022, prior to the widespread protests in Iran (now better known as Women Life Freedome uprising), Khamenei made a dark reference to the notorious 1980s, when thousands of political prisoners were executed summarily, often after one or two questions, without even a sham trial.
"Our God today is the same God of the 1980s," he said.
The judiciary got the message. So did human rights organizations and activists, many of whom warned of more executions on the horizon. And they seem to have been right.
In the year and a half that followed, executions soared – from 333 in the year ending March 2022 to 617 in the year ending March 2023 and to 767 in the past year.
This sharp rise brought the total executed in Iran in the last decade to around five thousand people, according to Amnesty International, among them at least 57 children.
In his November 2023 report to the United Nations General Assembly, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres warned of an “alarming” growth in the number of executions in Iran. Many inside and outside Iran echoed this sentiment, urging the Iranian regime to stop the “state killings”, with numerous protests organized worldwide.
Last month, Khamenei dismissed the international outcry, calling it “ some noise”, and labeling those executed as "criminals." He also made the most of the Palestinians’ plight. "Westerners who make a fuss over the execution of a criminal have closed their eyes to the massacre of 30,000 people in Gaza," he said.
That’s probably not far off the total number of executions in Iran under Khamenei’s rule – since 1989.
Iraq's Ministry of Electricity Ziad Ali Fadhel and the CEO of the National Iranian Gas Company, Majid Chegeni, finalized the contract to extend Iran’s gas exports to Iraq in Baghdad on Wednesday.
After decades of electricity shortages because of war, corruption and mismanagement, oil-rich Iraq is heavily reliant on imported Iranian gas to meet its electricity needs. Iran has been supplying energy to Iraq for the past 10 years under an agreement signed in July 2013.
With an aging electricity grid unable to match the growing demand, Iraq suffers frequent power outages. However, Iran itself is in dire need of natural gas for its domestic electricity production as well as keeping its steel, petrochemical and other heavy industries afloat.
Iran’s insists on gas exports despite the huge deficit in production and growing domestic demand that has severely damaged the country’s industrial sector. Tehran might have various motivations driving this policy, including keeping Iraq dependent.
Last year, Iraq imported about nine billion cubic meters of natural gas from Iran, meaning that Tehran supplied about 25 million cubic meters per day. The new deal has envisioned twice that amount but only for periods when Iraq needs it. Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity said the deal would "ensure the sustainability of the work of power plants and keep pace with the peak loads and the increasing demand for electric energy."
Iran’s Oil Ministry’s press service, Shana, claims that Iran’s gas exports has increased to nearly 50 million cubic meters (mcm) per day in recent months after Iraq settled part of the debts it owed to the NIGC.
Over the past five years, there has been a notable disparity between electricity generation and the domestic demand in Iraq. Electricity consumption has increased by nearly 30%, outpacing the government's efforts to meet the surging demand. Imports from Iran are especially vital during the sweltering summer months when Iraqis are forced to pay for private diesel generators or suffer through temperatures that often top 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). The crisis usually comes back amid severe cold weather in winter.
The new agreement with Iran is viewed as a stopgap solution to help Iraq fulfill its electricity requirements while it works on developing its own gas fields. Baghdad is under increasing pressure from the US to wean itself off electricity and gas imports from Iran, under US sanctions since 2018.
In addition to gas supplies, Iraq also relies on Iran for nearly a third of its electricity. However, cash-strapped Iran switches off its electricity and gas exports to put pressure on Baghdad to urge Washington for waivers. Iran only prioritizes its local consumers when Iraq seems unable to transfer the funds.
The US has issued Iraq a series of sanctions waivers to continue importing Iranian energy but has warned the waivers could end if Baghdad does not make serious progress toward finding other fuel and power sources. Although Baghdad has sought to diversify its electricity supply through overtures to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, and Kuwait, no significant progress has been made on these fronts.
The waivers issued by the US every 120 days are reportedly limited to non-sanctioned goods, stressing Tehran could only use the funds for humanitarian trade and seeking to blunt criticism of giving Iran the money that can be used to fund terrorism. However, since July 2023, the US has started allowing Iraq not only to make payments into restricted Iranian accounts in Iraq but also for the funds to be sent to similarly restricted accounts in third countries.
In July, Tehran and Baghdad also agreed to barter oil and gas after Iran cut its gas supply by over 50% due to Iraq’s unpaid debts which worsened the electricity crisis in the country.
In late 2022, the United States tightened measures on Iraq's access to its foreign reserves held in the Federal Reserve due to suspicions of money being transferred to Iran, Syria, and other sanctioned entities.
