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Canada remains skeptical of the Iranian regime despite a charm offensive by President Hasan Rowhani, who has released a dozen political prisoners and rejected nuclear weapons in recent days, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s office said Thursday.

While the Mr. Baird’s press secretary said he was relieved that human rights lawyer Nasrin Soutoudeh and a handful of others had been set free, he said Canada wanted to see deep reforms in the Islamic republic, which has been ruled subject to clerical rule since 1979.

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“We remain deeply skeptical of the Iranian regime’s commitments to reform as their nuclear program continues unabated, they continue to fund terrorist networks in the region including the murderous Assad regime, now implicated for war crimes, and they continue to ignore their abysmal human rights record,” Rick Roth said.

He said despite the release of political prisoners, thousands of others remained behind bars without due process and the regime would ultimately be “judged by its actions, not empty platitudes and symbolic gestures like we’ve seen thus far.”