UNITED NATIONS — Iran was under attack on two fronts Thursday as a Canadian-led assault on the Islamic republic’s human rights record added to international frustration over Iran’s latest nuclear fuel proposal.
Western powers seeking to make Iran roll back its nuclear program privately balked at Iran’s reported idea to resume uranium imports in exchange for exporting its current enriched uranium stock.
This unfolded as Canada deposited a draft resolution at the United Nations that implicitly criticizes the UN’s array of human rights investigators, saying they need to get proactive about exposing human rights abuse in Iran.
“Today, at the United Nations General Assembly, Canada will table the toughest resolution on the human rights situation in Iran,” Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said in the House of Commons just ahead of the UN filing.
“For the first time, under this government, we are calling on the investigators to focus on Iran’s appalling human rights record.”
The United States and five other big powers have long led the international focus on Iran’s suspected bid to develop a nuclear bomb. But Canada has emerged as a catalyst for UN scrutiny of Iran’s human rights record since the 2003 torture and murder of Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi while she was in Iranian custody.
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