Iran has ordered Canada's ambassador to leave the country, the Canadian foreign minister said late on Monday, calling the move entirely unjustifiable.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier suggested the expulsion of Ambassador John Mundy, who was recently appointed and yet to have his credentials accepted, was a tit-for-tat move by the government in Tehran.
Canada and Iran have tried to come to an agreement on an exchange of ambassadors for some time, but Canada is not willing to accept the candidates Tehran has proposed thus far.
"Iran has been refusing to let our ambassador present his credentials and thereby fully assume his duties," Foreign Affairs spokesman Shaun Tinkler said. "They've decided to downgrade our relations."
Canada responded by criticizing Tehran.
"Iran hasn't measured up to standards for full and normal partnership for some time given their human rights record, the Kazemi case, the nuclear issue," Tinkler said.
The diplomatic slap came one day after the Iranian charge d'affaires expressed frustration that his country's overtures to Canada were being ignored.
Seyed Mahdi Mohebi that he has twice asked for a resumption of high-level contacts up to the foreign minister level.
Relations have been frosty since former Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor helped spirit Americans out of the US embassy in 1980 before they could be taken hostage shortly after the Iranian revolution.
The Foreign Affairs statement says Ottawa will continue to monitor the well-being of the other embassy staff in Tehran.
Bernier says the Canadian embassy in Iran will be now headed by the charge d'affaires.
Both countries will continue to maintain embassies in the respective capitals and conduct normal operations, the release said.
Recently, Iran's supreme court ordered a review of the death of Zahra Kazemi, the Canadian photojournalist who died in custody after being arrested outside of a Tehran prison in 2003.
After her death, a committee appointed by then-Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, a reformist, found that Kazemi, 54, died of a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage caused by a "physical attack."
Prosecutors charged a secret agent who interrogated Kazemi while she was in custody, but those charges were later dropped.
The more conservative judiciary rejected the finding, saying that Kazemi died in an accidental fall when her blood pressure dropped during a hunger strike.
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