As Saudi Arabia launches hundreds of airstrikes on Yemen and Trump threatens to “annihilate” Iran, Ottawa is criticizing Ansar Allah. Yet the flagrant imperial double standard passes with nary a mention.
Since breaking a four-year ceasefire by striking the Sanaa International Airport on July 13 Saudi Arabia has reportedly struck 760 targets in Yemen. According to Ansar Allah (Houthis) on Monday, the Saudis launched 28 strikes over the past 24-hours. The kingdom has destroyed many sites and killed dozens of Yemeni civilians.
The recent bombing is part of decades of Saudi violence against their southern neighbour. The recent escalation is a direct response to Ansar Allah liberating significant territory from Saudi domination.
In response to escalating Saudi violence, Ansar Allah has hit sites in the kingdom. On Saturday they reportedly struck a fuel depot at the airport in Riyadh.
Ottawa’s response to the attack has been to condemn Ansar Allah. On Sunday Global Affairs posted, “Canada strongly condemns ongoing Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia that are escalating tensions in Yemen and the broader region. Attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure must immediately stop, and the freedom of maritime navigation must be restored in the Bab el Mandeb Strait.”
I’ve yet to see a single Canadian politician or commentator of note criticize Ottawa’s silence on hundreds of Saudi strikes on Yemen.
Nor has any politician mentioned Canada’s arms sales to the Kingdom. In recent days, researcher Anthony Fenton has documented a series of light armoured vehicles manufactured by Canadian companies Streit Group and IAG’s Rila that Ansar Allah has destroyed or seized. Saudi-backed forces — the kingdom has reportedly been paying the salary of as many as 400,000 Yemeni fighters — have long used Canadian arms. Those weapons mostly come through Saudi Arabia or UAE.
Ottawa has sold billions of dollars in arms to the two Gulf monarchies. When Ottawa okayed a $15 billion LAV sale to Riyadh in 2016 they justified it as for “countering instability in Yemen”.
As politicians and commentators ignore Canada’s role in Saudi violence, there’s also near silence about US threats against Iran.
On Thursday Donald Trump told Axios, “I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate them or do I not? It’s a big decision. Anything could happen with me.” He followed that genocidal statement up by telling Fox News on Sunday that his considerations were “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal.” The US president added, “my question is if and when I blow the entire nation up. They better behave.”
It’s been several months since a Canadian politician or commentator has criticized Trump’s endless stream of appalling threats towards Iran. Instead, Ottawa enables US attacks by repeatedly criticizing Tehran for targeting countries hosting US bases.
The anti-Iranian climate in Canadian politics is remarkable. On Saturday the son of the last Shah, Reza Pahlavi, spoke in Toronto. He spoke with Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre yet I couldn’t find any politician who criticizedthe event with the Zionist ‘crown prince’.
In a sign of the whiplash of anti-Iranianism on the community, CBC reported on hundreds of individuals who may be expelled from the country because years earlier they were conscripted into Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps(IRGC). Despite protesting the Iranian government while here, these individuals are being labelled inadmissible on security grounds because Ottawa designated the IRGC a terrorist organization two years ago, which is the only component of any state’s military on Canada’s terror list.
Despite disclosing their mandatory military service in their permanent residency applications and having limited roles in the IRGC, these individuals are facing the impact of Canadian anti-Iranianism. As part of the US empire/Zionist targeting of Iran, establishment commentators have been claiming Canada is a haven for the IRGC and suggesting Ottawa is soft on Iran. It is an absurd inversion of reality designed to justify and encourage further belligerence, which includes Canada breaking off diplomatic relations, labelling that country a state sponsor of terror, stealing its diplomatic assets and many rounds of sanctions.
Anti-Iranianism is so overwhelming that few pose the obvious question: Should Canada be deporting anyone to a country that’s been violently attacked by the US and Israel. Is it right to deport, or even threaten to deport, people somewhere the most powerful individual in the world is threatening to “annihilate”?
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