Wednesday, November 11, 2026 - Canada’s foreign ministry announced the measures on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Paris, saying they were intended “to disrupt Iranian financial networks supporting its nuclear program”. All 11 entities were removed from Canada’s sanctions list in 2016 after international inspectors reported that Iran had taken steps to meet its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal.
The entities are the Nuclear Fuel Production and Procurement
Company, Nuclear Reactors Fuel Company, Kala Naft, Naftiran Intertrade Company,
National Iranian Oil Company, National Iranian Tanker Company, Bank Mellat,
Bank Melli Iran, Bank of Industry and Mine, Export Development Bank of Iran and
Iran Insurance Company.
The measures were reinstated under Canada’s Special Economic
Measures (Iran) Regulations. Ottawa said they would further restrict Iran’s
access to sensitive technology and funding. The regulations prohibit people in
Canada and Canadians abroad from carrying out specified financial or property
transactions with listed individuals and entities.
Canada first imposed sanctions under those regulations in
July 2010, in consultation with partners including the United States and the
European Union, citing Iran’s failure to meet its international nuclear
obligations. As a non-nuclear-weapon state under the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons, Iran is obliged not to develop or acquire nuclear
weapons.
In July 2015, China, France, Germany, Russia, the United
Kingdom and the United States, together with the European Union, reached an
agreement with Iran known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, the deal imposed limits on
Iran’s nuclear programme and expanded verification by the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), including through the Additional Protocol, in exchange
for sanctions relief.
The IAEA reported in January 2016 that Iran had allowed
verification activities and taken steps to restrict its nuclear programme under
the agreement. Canada eased its own sanctions the following month in
coordination with international partners, removing the 11 entities from its
list.
In June 2025, the IAEA Board of Governors found that Iran
was not complying with its safeguards obligations and called on Tehran to
cooperate fully with inspectors. The following month, after Israeli and US
attacks on Iran, Tehran suspended cooperation with the agency, further limiting
its ability to monitor and verify nuclear activities.
France, Germany and the UK invoked the agreement’s
“snapback” mechanism in August 2025, citing Iran’s production of highly
enriched uranium and insufficient cooperation with the IAEA. The move led to
the reinstatement of UN nuclear-related sanctions in September. Canada amended
its separate regulations implementing UN resolutions on Iran that month to give
effect to those measures.
In June 2026, the G7 reaffirmed that Iran must not develop
or acquire a nuclear weapon and called for limits on uranium enrichment and
effective IAEA verification.
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