Canada announced rather suddenly on Friday that it was shuttering its embassy in Iran and expelling all Iranian diplomats, but its main motivation for doing so was a little hard to pick out. In a statement announcing the closure, Foreign Minister John Baird (pictured) called Iran the "most significant threat to global peace and security in the world today," and cited, as evidence, its refusal to comply with UN resolutions on its nuclear program, its threats to Israel, its "racist anti-Semitic rhetoric and incitement to genocide," and its support of terrorists. But the Associated Press's story on the embassy closure reported that Baird was "worried about the safety of diplomats in Tehran following recent attacks on the British embassy there." In November 2011, student protesters raided the UK embassy in Tehran. Canada's National Post newspaper noted that "In July, the government warned Iran to stop using its embassy in Ottawa to recruit Iranian-Canadians to serve its interests." But of those, there's not one specific thing that can be seen as the impetus for Canada's decision. Apparently Canada is just fed up.

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Adam Martin