{"id":15723,"date":"2020-07-05T22:17:39","date_gmt":"2020-07-05T20:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranfreedom.org\/en\/?p=15723"},"modified":"2020-07-14T09:42:59","modified_gmt":"2020-07-14T07:42:59","slug":"former-canadian-foreign-minister-john-baird-supports-mek-iranian-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranfreedom.org\/en\/articles\/2020\/07\/former-canadian-foreign-minister-john-baird-supports-mek-iranian-people\/15723\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird supports MEK, Iranian people"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

John Russel Baird<\/a>,\u00a0who served from 2011 to 2105 as the 10^{th<\/sup>\u00a0Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs,\u00a0has a long story in confronting the Iranian regime.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n}

\u00a0\u201cCanada continues to have grave and sincere concerns over Iran\u2019s nuclear program and their abhorrent human rights records and their continued support for international terrorism around the world,\u201d\u00a0he said in 2013\u00a0after\u00a0announcing sanctions against Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November 2014 in a statement about the Nuclear Talks in Vienna,\u00a0Baird\u00a0said the negotiations with the Iranian regime\u00a0were\u00a0not an open-end\u00a0process and \u201cuntil Canada is satisfied, our sanctions will remain in full force.\u201d He added: \u201cA nuclear Iran would not only be a threat to Canada and our allies but would also seriously damage the integrity of decades of work on nuclear non-proliferation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a meeting of the UN Security Council in 2014, he noted that \u201cCanada has designated Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0involved in a negative way in every single country in the region. It\u2019s provided material support to a good number of terrorist organizations around the world and it has not been a force for good.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014 while he secretly visited Iraq, he declared that Canada would stand by the people of Iraq but rejected improving relations with the Iranian regime for confronting ISIS in Iraq.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His main act in confronting the Iranian regime is his support of the Iranian opposition, the MEK\/PMOI<\/a> and the NCRI. In his speech at the Iranian Resistance\u2019s Free Iran rally in Paris on\u00a09 July 2016 he stated that the Iranian regime is the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world today.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the years, billions of dollars have left Tehran to sow fear, violence, death and destruction. From Assad\u2019s war against his own people to a Jewish community\u00a0center\u00a0in Buenos Aires, from a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington to arming Hezbollah<\/a> with missiles targeting civilians in Israel, we must call the mullahs out on it,\u201d\u00a0he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baird\u00a0cites the Iranian people, who suffer under the brutal regime daily, as the international community\u2019s biggest ally to topple the mullahs\u2019 dictatorship.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMake no mistake whatsoever that the people of Iran do not support this regime and they want to see it overthrown. Each and every one of us needs to stand in solidarity with the people of Iran and come together and state clearly that the notion that Hassan Rouhani is a moderate or is a reformer, simply put, is a fraud,\u201d\u00a0the former Canadian top diplomat explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the \u201cFree Iran Rally\u201d in 2018, he stated: \u201c Madame\u00a0Rajavi<\/a>, friends, it\u2019s a great honor and a great privilege to once again join and to stand in solidarity with all of you and with the people of Iran.\u00a0We come together to support the people of Iran in their great struggle. For years, far too many Western governments have tried to find a moderate faction within the regime in Tehran.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n