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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.
