“Canada has closed its embassy in Iran, effective immediately, and declared personae non gratae all remaining Iranian diplomats in Canada,” Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird said in statement.

“Canada views the Government of Iran as the most significant threat to global peace and security in the world today,” he said.

“The Iranian regime is providing increasing military assistance to the Assad regime; it refuses to comply with UN resolutions pertaining to its nuclear program; it routinely threatens the existence of Israel and engages in racist anti-Semitic rhetoric and incitement to genocide, he added.

In response to Baird’s remarks, Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said in a statement that the closure of the Canadian Embassy in Tehran by Canada’s government is the continuation of Canada’s Prime Minister’s anti-Iran policies and an obvious breach of international law.

He referred to numerous and hostile measures by the Canadian government against the Iranian society of Canada as closing down the visa section of the Canadian Embassy in Tehran and freezing the accounts of Iranians, as well as blocking cash transfer for Iranian university students of Canada.

“Hostile attitude of the Canadian racist government is indeed pursuing the policies as dictated by the Zionist regime and the UK,” Mehmanparast added.

The spokesman noted that the government of Canada tried hard to prevent Iran from holding the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit which failed due to negligence of participating countries and international personalities.

The United States also does not have a functioning embassy in Tehran since 1980, when 52 Americans were held hostages for 444 days. Britain’s embassy in Tehran has been closed since it was stormed by protesters last November.

Sharaa was last seen at the funeral of four top Syrian government officials who were killed in July 18 bombing in Damascus. Since then, widespread rumors have circulated that he defected to Jordan. Jordan and Sharaa’s office continually denied he defected.

Sharaa, 73, Syria’s vice president since 2006, is the most powerful Sunni figure in the minority Alawite-led regime, and has served in top posts for almost 30 years.

Earlier this month, the opposition claimed that Sharaa had defected and said he was being held under house arrest by the Syrian regime, according to Al Arabiya.

However, state television on August 19 quoted a statement from his office saying: “Mr Sharaa has never thought about leaving the country or going anywhere.”

Meanwhile, SANA Syrian State TV had said on Saturday that a fake email had been sent out in its name claiming that Shara had been sacked, adding that the “information is completely wrong”. It also denied that foreign minister Walid Muallem had announced on Twitter he had replaced Shara, saying that the he did not even have a Twitter account.

Assad’s government has been hit by several defections as the Syrian conflict has escalated, including former Prime Minister Riad Hijab.

President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday said that Syria would defeat what he described as a foreign plot being waged against the country, according to the official SANA news agency

. “The Syrian people will prevent this conspiracy from reach its goals at any price,” he said.

Assad’s statement came during his meeting with the Iranian delegation led by Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.