AhlulBayt News Agency: Tehran has slammed Canada’s fresh sanctions on Iranian media news outlets, saying the move is in violation of people’s basic rights and exposes the West’s empty rhetoric regarding free access to information and freedom of expression.
“The US government’s sanctions lunacy has turned into a virus that is rapidly spreading to its friends,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kan’ani said in a post on his Instagram account on Friday.
Canada on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on six Iranian individuals and four entities over alleged human rights violations in the country and continued actions to destabilize regional peace and security.
The newly sanctioned individuals and entities include military figures, the Guardian Council, and the Assembly of Experts.
Kan’ani said the list also includes Keyhan newspaper, Tasnim news agency, Nour News and Fars news agency, as well as the current and former heads of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting along with an IRIB reporter.
He added that it is not the first time Canada has sanctioned prominent Iranian media outlets and journalists, pointing to its recent sanctions on Press TV.
The spokesperson said Canada and its anti-Iranian Western allies have targeted Iranian people with economic sanctions while depriving them of the right to express their opinions, “unless they speak like them and in their cultural language, such as ‘Iran International’, ‘Manoto,’ and other [channels].”
“Resorting to force and sanctions to prevent the voice of others from being heard by a country whose human rights claims have deafened the world is not so surprising,” Kan’ani added.
He said Canada tends to show its apartheid behaviors occasionally, a proof of which, he said, is the discovery of mass graves of indigenous children in that country.
But Ottawa has now launched a “media apartheid,” he said.
“When [empty] slogans are unmasked and logic becomes weak, there is no option but to resort to force and sanction. Sanction has become the international language of the US and its allies,” the spokesperson said.
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“The US government’s sanctions lunacy has turned into a virus that is rapidly spreading to its friends,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kan’ani said in a post on his Instagram account on Friday.
Canada on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on six Iranian individuals and four entities over alleged human rights violations in the country and continued actions to destabilize regional peace and security.
The newly sanctioned individuals and entities include military figures, the Guardian Council, and the Assembly of Experts.
Kan’ani said the list also includes Keyhan newspaper, Tasnim news agency, Nour News and Fars news agency, as well as the current and former heads of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting along with an IRIB reporter.
He added that it is not the first time Canada has sanctioned prominent Iranian media outlets and journalists, pointing to its recent sanctions on Press TV.
The spokesperson said Canada and its anti-Iranian Western allies have targeted Iranian people with economic sanctions while depriving them of the right to express their opinions, “unless they speak like them and in their cultural language, such as ‘Iran International’, ‘Manoto,’ and other [channels].”
“Resorting to force and sanctions to prevent the voice of others from being heard by a country whose human rights claims have deafened the world is not so surprising,” Kan’ani added.
He said Canada tends to show its apartheid behaviors occasionally, a proof of which, he said, is the discovery of mass graves of indigenous children in that country.
But Ottawa has now launched a “media apartheid,” he said.
“When [empty] slogans are unmasked and logic becomes weak, there is no option but to resort to force and sanction. Sanction has become the international language of the US and its allies,” the spokesperson said.
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