Peter Kent

Canada’s delegation to the United Nations environmental summit in Brazil walked out when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stood to speak last week.

The June 20 protest by the delegation, led by Environment Minister Peter Kent, was in keeping with prior Canadian walkouts on the Iranian regime’s president.

Canada has boycotted or walked out on Ahmadinejad at numerous diplomatic events over the last few years, including whenever the Iranian leader has turned up at the UN’s annual general assemblies.

Kent told the Vancouver Sun on June 21 that Canada would not listen to a leader of a regime that continues “to pose the most significant threats to global peace and security today.”

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In related news, the latest round of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program ended with no agreement.

Leaders on both sides said after the talks ended late June 21 that they remained open to further talks, and that technical-level meetings were needed before further high-level negotiations could be held.

The talks between Iran and the “P5+1” world powers – the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia and China – were held in Moscow.

“The expert meeting could provide clear ideas for the talks,” Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief negotiator, said.

“Today they [the world powers] are facing a great test in order to obtain the confidence of the Iranian people,” he told reporters, the BBC reported.

The lower-level technical meetings are planned for July 3, after new sanctions on Iran are due to take effect.

Iran denies it is enriching uranium for nuclear weapons purposes.

“A deal may be possible on paper, but the gaps between what Iran and the United States want on enrichment and sanctions relief can’t be bridged,” Aaron David Miller, a former State Department adviser on the Middle East to Democratic and Republican administrations, told Washington Post. “The negotiating process will remain just that because the urgency required for a deal just isn’t there from either side.”

With files from JTA