Carney says he supports strikes on Iran ‘with some regret’

Melbourne, Australia — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he supported the strikes on Iran “with some regret” because they were an extreme example of a crumbling world order.

Carney spoke at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based international policy think tank, on the Australian leg of a trade-focused, three-nation visit that began in India. He will address the Australian Parliament on Thursday, then fly to Japan on Friday.

“Geographically, hegemony is acting without restraint or respect for international norms or laws, while others suffer the consequences. Now the severity of this disruption is being played out in real time in the Middle East,” Carney said.

Canada’s prime minister stressed that his country was not informed in advance of the US-Israeli airstrikes, in his first remarks since the outbreak of war on February 28.

“We were not informed in advance, we were not asked to participate,” Carney told reporters traveling with him in Australia. “Primarily, these actions appear to be inconsistent with international law.”

Whether the US and Israeli airstrikes violated international law was “a judgment for others,” he said.

Carney said Canada supported efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and threatening international peace and security. The two countries have not had relations for 15 years due to reported human rights abuses in Iran. Canada last year designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist entity.

“We are actively taking on the world, not passively waiting for the world we want. But we take this position with some regret because the current conflict is another example of the failure of the international order,” he said.

Despite decades of UN efforts, “Iran’s nuclear threat remains and now the United States and Israel have acted without engaging the UN or consulting with allies, including Canada,” he said.

Carney’s speech, which built on material he made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January drew widespread attention. He argued that the world order was disintegrating and old norms of normative order were being erased.

Canada and Australia aim to increase cooperation in critical minerals, artificial intelligence and defense technologies.

Carney said Canada and Australia are both rich in critical minerals and have worked together to build “the largest mineral reserves that any credible democracy has.”