Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian pictured at a ceremony organized by his country's naval forces in May 2025, PHOTO: Iranian Presidency / Zuma Press / Profimedia Images
The Royal Canadian Navy was designated by Tehran as a “terrorist organization” on Tuesday, as a measure of retaliation following a similar decision by Canada targeting the Revolutionary Guards, Iran's ideological army, reports AFP.
The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced in a statement the measure taken by Canada last summer as “contrary to the fundamental principles of international law”.
“As part of reciprocity,” Iran “declares the Royal Canadian Navy a terrorist organization,” Tehran announced, without specifying how that might affect the Canadian Navy.
Canada justified the inclusion of the Revolutionary Guards on its list of terrorist entities by the fact that Iran “shows contempt for human rights” and that it has shown a “will to destabilize the international order”.
By virtue of this measure, Ottawa can freeze assets and prosecute members of the Revolutionary Guards.
2020 Iran-Canada tensions
Canada's decision came in the context of strong tensions, for several years, between the two countries.
Canada, like other Western countries, has filed a complaint against Iran at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), demanding that Tehran be found guilty of downing a Ukrainian Boeing jet in 2020.
On January 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) flight PS752, connecting Tehran to Kyiv, was shot down shortly after takeoff, killing 176 people, mostly Iranians and Canadians.
The Revolutionary Guards admitted that their forces shot down the plane, but claimed that their controllers mistook it for a hostile target.
Following a movement challenging the regime in Tehran, triggered by the death of young Mahsa Amini in police custody in 2022, Ottawa imposed several series of sanctions on Iranian organizations and officials, whom it accuses of complicity with the Iranian authorities.
Canada thus banned the entry into Canadian territory of 10,000 Iranian officials, including some members of the Revolutionary Guards.
Ottawa broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran in 2012, describing Iran as “the most important threat to world peace”.
