Carney says he backs strikes on Iran ‘with some regret’ as world order frays : NPR

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, center, gestures to Daniel Mulino, Australia’s deputy treasurer, as he is introduced at the start of a signing ceremony, as Canadian Minister of Finance and National Revenue François-Philippe Champagne, right, looks on in Sydney, Australia.

Adrian Wyld/AP/The Canadian Press

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Adrian Wyld/AP/The Canadian Press

MELBOURNE, Australia — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday he supports the strikes against Iran “with some regret” because they represent an extreme example of a broken world order.

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

“Geostrategically, hegemonic powers are increasingly acting without constraint or respect for international norms or laws, while others bear the consequences. Today, the extremes of this disruption are playing out in real time in the Middle East,” Carney said.

The Canadian prime minister stressed that his country was not informed in advance of the US-Israeli airstrikes, in his first remarks since the war broke out on February 28.

“We were not informed in advance, we were not asked to participate,” Carney told reporters traveling with him to Australia. “At first glance, it appears that these actions are inconsistent with international law.”

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

Canada supported efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and threatening international peace and security, Carney said. The two countries have not maintained relations for 15 years due to human rights violations in Iran. Last year, Canada designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist entity.

“We actively confront the world as it is, without passively waiting for the world we want to be. But we also 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, “the Iranian nuclear threat remains and now the United States and Israel have acted without engaging the UN or consulting their allies, including Canada,” he added.

Carney built on themes he outlined in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in a speech that attracted widespread attention. He argued that the world order was breaking down and the old norms of the rules-based order were being erased.

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

Canada and Australia are both rich in essential minerals and have worked together to build “the largest mineral reserve held by trusted democratic nations,” Carney said.