A senior Iranian legislator condemned Ottawa's decision to recall its diplomats from Tehran, and said the move had been devised by London and later dictated to the Canadian officials.

"Given the fact that Canada is a country supervised by the UK and its governor is appointed by the British queen and all the important decisions by the country's governor are taken by the (British) queen and in coordination with her, it is natural that Ottawa is not pleased with the closure of the British embassy in Tehran (by the Iranian officials in 2011)," Chairman of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi told FNA on Saturday.

"Certainly, the British government seeks to push its allies to the same way that it had paved to counter Iran; therefore, this decision (of Ottawa) was actually a blind obedience (to Britain) by the Canadian government," he added.

His remarks came after five Canadian diplomats left Iran on Friday and closed the embassy in a sudden move, suspending ties with Tehran.

The two sides already had low-level diplomatic ties that made it almost impossible for them to do useful work.

Government sources said that Canadian diplomats in Iran had almost no contact for years with Iranian officials. That reduced the value of the diplomacy at an embassy with an annual budget of about $7-million, an official said.

In Tehran, several politicians and MPs welcomed the severance of ties with Canada, saying that Tehran should have taken such an action and the relations should have been cut off much earlier.

Ottawa is a staunch supporter of Israel, following a tough stand on Iran. It is said that the Canadian government plans to ratchet up measures against Tehran.

Three diplomats had left in recent weeks, and five flew out early on Friday. Hours later, Ottawa announced that Iran's diplomats have five days to leave Canada.
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News ID 182647