(JTA) – Canada banned Iran’s Quds Force and classified the elite military body as a terrorist organization.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said in a Dec. 20 statement that the Quds Force – an elite unit of the Iranian regime’s Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, or Revolutionary Guard – was responsible for "exporting the Iranian revolution through activities such as facilitating terrorist operations."
He accused it of providing "arms, funding and paramilitary training to extremist groups, including the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.”
B’nai Brith Canada, among other pro-Israel group, applauded Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Toews for their “principled stance in combating terror.”
The listing comes after Canada’s decision in September to designate the Iranian regime as a state sponsor of terrorism, terminating Ottawa’s diplomatic ties with Iran and expelling Iranian diplomats from Canada. Canada also removed an Iranian opposition organization, the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, from its list of terror groups.
In Spain, the Hispasat communication satellites group on Friday stopped broadcasting two Iranian television channels: Press TV, and Iran’s recently-launched Spanish-language channel, Hispan TV.
According to Press TV, Hispasat did not state the reason for taking the news channels off the air.
Last week, Press TV published an anti-Israel, anti-Jewish interview with American journalist Mike Harris, who blamed pro-Israel figures in Hollywood for the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Conneticut.
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