[Canadian] Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew has fired back at Iran's warning that Canada's new ambassador could face "trouble" for meddling in the case of Zahra Kazemi.
| Don't send him. Tell them to go to hell. |
"We will not accept any kind of threats under one form or the other," he told the Commons foreign affairs committee. "This is a Canadian citizen who was murdered in a prison in Iran, and we will continue to raise it independently of what they think or what any spokesperson will say."
| Then why send an ambassador back, if you're going to withdraw him again? Or are you going to leave him in place to take the abuse? |
Canada pulled its ambassador to Iran five months ago in protest over the case, but announced last week that Gordon Venner would be assigned to the post. Venner would make the Kazemi case a priority, Pettigrew insisted in announcing the appointment. On Sunday, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Tehran warned Canada's new ambassador to butt out of the Kazemi affair. "If anyone enters Iran on this mission, they get themselves into trouble," spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi had told reporters. "This is a domestic issue of the Islamic Republic of Iran."
| That involves a Canadian citizen... |
Pettigrew's spokesman said Venner will pursue redress "as far as possible."
| I doubt that'll actually be very far. |
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