Mohammad Keshavarzzadeh, the General Director of American Affairs Department in Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made the remarks while speaking to reporters in the sidelines of the first conference on ‘History of Iran’s Foreign Relations’ in Tehran.
“So far, five rounds of talks have been held between the two parties at the expert level and an Iranian delegation is slated to make a visit to Canada following Christmas holidays.
He recalled that the latest round of negotiations had been held in Tehran; “on the whole, the Iranian capital has played host to two rounds of talks while the remaining convened in Canada’s soil.”
The Foreign Ministry official, while stating that his Canadian counterpart had traveled to Tehran in the last round, said “we are planning to deploy an Iranian delegation at the Directorate General level to Canada following the New Year holidays.”
Referring to the Canadian side’s willingness to resume diplomatic relations with Iran, Keshavarzzadeh said “similar to Iran, they are also keen to establish diplomatic ties between the two countries.”
He however explained that certain technical issues existed that had to be addressed by the Canadian side, including the location of their embassy and similar matters.”
At another part of his remarks, general director of American affairs department in Iran’s Foreign Ministry touched upon the Canadian court’s order to freeze Iran’s assets and explained that Tehran had protested to the decision as Iranian lawyers are pursuing the matter. “In 2012, the Canadian government canceled our country’s immunity and we reciprocated.”
He added that “both Iran and Canada now enjoy diplomatic immunity. Some property belonged to some governmental and not diplomatic agencies for which no ruling has been issued yet.”
“We have filed a complaint with the Canadian court over the issue and will certainly pursue the issue,” he underlined.
On murder of an Iranian-American citizen, Keshavarzzadeh said Iran had protested in a variety of ways. “Our office in Washington has followed up the case, and I also summoned and the Swiss ambassador in Tehran and demanded that the issue be followed up.”
He also commented on the US court order regarding an Iranian-Canadian citizen for circumventing sanctions and stated that “we do not accept sanctions for being cruel and illegal and we denounce verdicts against Iranian citizens arrested over the issue.”
“Accordingly, we are pursuing the status of our nationals who have been litigated by Americans in different countries,” highlighted the official maintaining that some of these citizens have hired attorneys for themselves.
At the end of his remarks, Keshavarzzadeh pointed to FM Zarif’s complaint against Nikki Haley over her anti-Iranian statements saying “we are taking steps results of which will be made public in the present week.”
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