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NEW YORK – Prime Minister Stephen Harper called on the international community Thursday to do more to “step up pressure and isolate” Iran, which he labelled a regime “where evil dominates.”

Shunning an opportunity to speak at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, Harper delivered his attack on Iran after receiving the World Statesman Award from the New York-based Appeal of Conscience Foundation.

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He targeted Iran as a country that constitutes “unambiguously a clear and present danger” to the world both for its pursuit of nuclear weapons, its support of terrorism and its threat to the existence of Israel.

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Harper, who recently closed Canada’s embassy in Tehran and expelled Iranian diplomats from Ottawa, assured an audience that included former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger and several prominent ACF donors that he is not advocating war.

“I say these things not to counsel any particular action, not to wish any additional hardship on the long-suffering Iranian people and certainly not to advocate war, but rather so that we not shrink from recognizing evil in the world for what it is,” he said.