Canada reimposed sanctions on 11 Iranian entities on Tuesday over their contributions to Iran’s nuclear activities and ballistic missile programme, Foreign Minister Anita Anand said.
Anand announced the measures during a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Paris, saying they were intended to restrict Iran’s access to financing and sensitive technology linked to its nuclear and missile programmes.
“Canada’s position is clear: Iran must never be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons,” Anand was quoted as saying in a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
The measures target 11 entities that contributed to “Iran’s proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities and ballistic missile programme, or to financing its malicious activities,” the statement said.
Canada removed the entities from its sanctions list in 2016, following the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers. However, Ottawa said Tehran had repeatedly failed to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, regarding its nuclear activities and had failed to comply with provisions of previous UN Security Council resolutions.
The United States, its European allies and Israel accuse Tehran of using its nuclear programme to conceal efforts to develop the capability to produce nuclear weapons. Iran maintains that its nuclear programme is intended solely for peaceful purposes.
The United States has been at war with Iran since joint US-Israeli airstrikes against the Islamic Republic on February 28.
An Iranian official told Reuters last week that Tehran had submitted a proposal to the United States on nuclear issues through Qatar. However, the official said discussions would depend on Washington first meeting a series of Iranian demands.
Those demands include sanctions relief, access to frozen assets and war reparations, the official said. Washington maintains that nuclear issues must be part of the initial negotiations.
The 11 entities targeted by Canada include the Iran Nuclear Fuel Production and Procurement Company, the Nuclear Reactor Fuel Company, the National Iranian Oil Company and the National Iranian Tanker Company.
The other sanctioned entities include Kala Naft, Naftiran Intertrade Company, Bank Mellat, Bank Melli, the Bank of Industry and Mine of Iran, the Export Development Bank of Iran and the Central Insurance of Iran.
Iran’s security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, said in October that Tehran was debating whether to lift its longstanding ban on nuclear weapons if hostilities resumed, although he stressed that no decision had yet been made.
