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Posted on 01/15/2003 2:27:21 PM PST by knighthawk
Baaklini repeats statement despite Canadian warning
Lebanon's embattled ambassador to Canada is blaming Christian fanatics and newspapers "under the control of Zionist groups" for making a scandal out of his recent undiplomatic remarks about his host country.
Despite being warned by Canadian Foreign Affairs officials last week that his remarks about Jewish influence in Canada were unacceptable, Raymond Baaklini was quoted yesterday in the Arab press repeating similar claims.
Saudi Arabian and Lebanese newspapers reported the ambassador had said that only Christian immigrants from Lebanon and the "Zionist" press were making an issue of his remarks about Canada.
Mr. Baaklini has been under fire since he told an Arabic newspaper in Montreal that in Canada the press was under Zionist control and police treated all bearded men and veiled women as suspects. He also said he feared that Canadian T-shirts were no longer welcome attire in the Arab world.
Department of Foreign Affairs officials in Ottawa summoned the ambassador to a meeting on Friday after a translation of the comments that Mr. Baaklini confirmed appeared in the National Post.
The ambassador has not spoken to the Canadian press since the diplomatic row erupted, but in Arab press accounts this week he did not back down from his remarks, and portrayed himself as a victim of a Zionist press.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is reviewing the ambassador's latest statement.
Mr. Baaklini originally lashed out at Canada after the federal government placed the violent Lebanese group Hezbollah on its list of banned terrorist groups. He claimed the government outlawed Hezbollah because of pressure from a "Zionist party" that he said "controls 90% of the Canadian media."
B'nai Brith Canada urged Bill Graham, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to ask for the ambassador's removal. "The dignity of Canada is at stake," said Frank Dimant, the vice-president. "Baaklini must be persona non grata in our country."
In articles published yesterday in the Arab newspapers Al Anwar and Asharq al-Awsat, Mr. Baaklini was quoted as saying he had met John McNee, assistant deputy minister for Africa and the Middle East, and that the Canadian official was satisfied with his explanation of the remarks.
"I explained my real viewpoint and made clear that my statement to the Arabic press was directed against Zionist groups. I had not said that those groups were Jewish, but Zionist, and that leaves no scope for any doubts that my statement might have been anti-Semitic, as the officers in the Foreign Ministry had feared," he said.
(In fact, the ambassador did claim that Jews controlled the Canadian media. Last week, he told the National Post that "90% of the mass media in Canada is controlled by Jews or Zionists.")
"I noticed that [Mr. McNee] did not care at all about what the press wrote. He regarded the explanations I gave regarding my press statement in the Montreal paper Sada al-Machric as sufficient.
"But the problem resurfaced in the last two days on the pages of papers under the control of Zionist groups and institutions in Canada who wrote that the authorities in the Foreign Ministry were dismayed by the statement and were thinking of demanding from Beirut that I be withdrawn as ambassador, which is totally incorrect."
Amid calls for Mr. Baaklini to be sent home, Mr. Graham called the comments "unacceptable and without foundation." Senior diplomats in Beirut raised the matter on Monday with the Lebanese government, which has said it would review the matter.
Yesterday, Jason Kenney, a Canadian Alliance MP, called for the expulsion of the ambassador, saying the government needs to send a message that his "conspiracy-theory propaganda" is unacceptable in this country."
Keith Landy, president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said the ambassador was out of line. "In light of these statements, the Canadian government should seriously consider his continued accreditation as an ambassador."
sbell@nationalpost.com
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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The old argle-bargle of "I love Jews but hate imperialistic Zionism". Barf.
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