Thank you very much. That is a very good question.
In answer to your question, I must point out that I am not an expert on sanctions in general. My expertise is more in the Middle East, Iran, and Canada's relations with this region. I would be reluctant to comment on sanctions in general because that is not my areas of expertise.
In the specific case of relations with Iran, this must be seen as a missed opportunity. As a result of the constraints that Canada has imposed on itself by creating a mechanism that is now extremely complicated to eliminate, it closes doors for itself. In terms of foreign policy in general, the idea that a state would impose constraints on itself does not make any sense, in my opinion. The state is penalizing itself, without any other country being involved. In general, other countries impose constraints on us, but in this case we have imposed them on ourselves.
In the case of Iran, of course, the missed opportunities are limited, and we must not blow this out of proportion. Canada-Iran relations will never be important to Canada or to Iran. The trade and diplomatic potential is very limited, but there is all the same a ceiling, as low as it is, that we will not attain because of these sanctions. There is some trade potential, but there is also the consular dimension. We saw this in the Homa Hoodfar case, which was resolved a few months ago. We do not know why the case was resolved, it remains a mystery, but we can at least conclude from the publicly available information that not having an embassy in the country certainly did not make things any easier.
There have been consular cases with Iran in the past and there will very likely be others in the future. We have to look at this as a missed opportunity for the country, which runs counter to our national interest.