By PAUL LUNGEN, Staff Reporter (CJN)
Junior Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Kent said his widely publicized statement that "an attack on Israel is considered an attack on Canada" was made in the context of the "bellicosity" of
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran's continuing nuclear program.
Peter Kent
It was also intended as a message "of solidarity with the only true democracy in the Middle East and as a basic statement of principle," Kent said in an interview with The CJN.
His comments "paraphrase what the prime minister and others in our cabinet have been saying'
It sets out clearly and restates the government's position" regarding the threat posed by a nuclear Iran.
"Any potential aggressor should be clear of Canada's position. Any potential aggressor should be well aware this is not lip service," he said.
In an interview published on Feb. 12, the Conservative MP for Thornhill told Shalom Life, "Prime Minister [Stephen] Harper has made it quite clear for some time now and has regularly stated that
an attack on Israel would be considered an attack on Canada."
He told the online magazine, which serves the Israeli expatriate community, that Israel is considered an ally of Canada.
"We work with our allies.
We regularly convey our concern in a variety of ways, at the United Nations as well as one on one. Foreign Minister [Lawrence] Cannon made a point last year of travelling all the way to Turkey
for a regional conference simply so he could confront directly and personally [Iranian] Foreign Minister [Manouchehr] Mottaki to convey our concern at the time with regards to the brutal
repression after the [Iranian] election."
He told Shalom Life that Canada believes the Iranian regime is a threat not just to its own people, but also to the countries surrounding it, including Israel.
Kent told The CJN Canada supports a broad international effort behind enhanced sanctions targeting Iran.
"Unilateral sanctions tend not to work," he said. "Canada, the UN'Security Council and countries like Russia are coming together now, and there seems to be an agreement that the tougher talk and
harder line against Iran would be timely."
Kent said his statement to Shalom Life was consistent with previous Canadian foreign policy. "It is the same solidarity we expressed a year ago when Israel was subjected to an unacceptable
barrage of rockets from Gaza," he said, and the same stance taken during the 2006 Lebanon war.
In May 2008, in a speech marking Israel's 60th anniversary, Harper said, "Those who threaten Israel also threaten Canada, because, as the last world war showed, hate-fuelled bigotry against some
is ultimately a threat to us all, and must be resisted wherever it may lurk."
Shimon Fogel, CEO of the Canada-Israel Committee (CIC), the Jewish community's advocacy arm on Israel, said he was pleased with Kent's statement. "We are increasingly happy that the nature of the
relationship is being fleshed out in particular terms, so it is clear what the nature of the bilateral relationship is'
"I think what it means is that an attack on Israel would trigger a set of responses from Canada consistent with an ally being attacked," as opposed to a more general response undertaken when a
country with less close ties was in a conflict, he said.
