PM Carney: Canada’s support for U.S. striking Iran came ‘with regret’
By Canadian Press on March 3, 2026.
SYDNEY — Four days after Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada supports the U.S. actions in Iran, he said that support comes “with regret” as they demonstrated the continued decline of the rules-based international order.
Taking questions from reporters for the first time since the U.S. strikes began on Saturday, Carney also said it appears the strikes broke international law.
“We were not informed in advance, we were not asked to participate,” Carney told reporters travelling with him in Australia. “Prima facie, it appears that these actions are inconsistent with international law.”
Carney was speaking in what was Wednesday morning in Sydney and Tuesday afternoon in Ottawa.
This past weekend, Carney broke with most European allies by unequivocally endorsing American strikes on Iran, which have since been joined by Israel. In a speech at an event in Mumbia, India, Carney
“Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from threatening international peace and security,” Carney said in a speech at the Canada-India Growth and Investment Forum in Mumbai on Saturday.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, who was with Carney in India on the weekend, told a business luncheon in Toronto on Tuesday about the discussion with Carney that led to Canada’s initial statement, shortly after it got word of the attacks. ”I was actually in a room with my deputy minister and some members of his team, and then he came in and we had the conversation about our approach,” she said.
Anand noted Canada has not had diplomatic relations with Iran for 15 years because of human rights abuses and state-sponsored terrorism, and that 18 months ago Canada declared the Iran Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist entity.
“So we had a very strongly held view that was really in place last June during the 12-day war that has at its foundation that nuclear. proliferation by Iran is unacceptable. At the same time, we want to make sure that we are standing for civilian lives and civilian infrastructure that is necessary to preserve those lives.”
Some Liberal MPs challenged Canada’s support for the war, saying Canada must stand up for the protection of civilians and territorial sovereignty even when it involves adversarial states.
In Australia, Carney said while Washington proceeded without engaging with the United Nations, the U.S. is responding to serious, repeated violations of international law by the Iranian regime. Now that the military operation has begun, Carney said he supports efforts to end Iran’s nuclear program and its decades-long program of state-sponsored terrorism.
“We would not have been in a position … to take a judgment that met our standards if we had been asked to participate. We weren’t. We haven’t made that formal judgment. It’s for others to make those judgments,” Carney said.
“We were dealing with the world as it is.”
The prime minister added that the U.S. and Israel must “respect the rules of international engagement” and called on Iran to stop its strikes against civilians across the Middle East.
Global Affairs Canada says more than 97,000 Canadians are registered in the Middle East.
They include a group of 16 Queen’s University students and one faculty member. The university says they’re safe in Doha after trying to make a connecting flight in Qatar following a biology field course in Sri Lanka.
“The situation is very volatile and very real, in terms of the potential for human life to be lost across the region, and that is our main concern, always,” Anand told the Toronto Region Board of Trade on Tuesday.
“We would like to play a role in the cessation of hostilities and the diplomatic resolution to the future result between these countries. It is a role that we are seeking to continually play.”
Anand said Tuesday she had asked Oman for permission to access its airspace “if necessary, for Canadian citizens to get out.” She noted Oman still had “viable” airspace as of Tuesday morning.
The U.S. State Department said Tuesday it was preparing military and charter flights for Americans who want to leave the Middle East, a move followed by some other nations.
Anand’s office said the minister is urging Canadians to leave the region through their own means. It said there is no current plan for Ottawa to co-ordinate evacuations, either by chartering commercial airlines or using military aircraft.
Anand said she has been in touch with multiple foreign ministers from the Persian Gulf and broader Middle East to ensure “that there are possibilities for Canadians to have supports in those countries.”
Earlier Tuesday, Defence Minister David McGuinty said Canadian military personnel in the Middle East were out of harm’s way. When he was asked how many Canadian military personnel are in the region, the minister said, “Some.”
“They are all fine, out of harm’s way and it’s something that we’re watching very carefully,” McGuinty told reporters in Sydney, Australia, where he was on an official visit with Prime Minister Carney.
His department would not offer more detail.
“Due to operational security imperatives, we will not provide a breakdown on the specific locations and number of Canadian Armed Forces personnel in the region at this time,” wrote department spokesman Kened Sadiku.
The Department of National Defence has previously listed the number of Canadian personnel stationed at an American airbase in Qatar and its soldiers have been posted recently to Kuwait and Bahrain.
Carney spoke Tuesday with Emirati President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and thanked him for protecting at least 24,500 Canadians in that country, which includes Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
McGuinty said the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is a positive development.
“Ayatollah Khamenei has been for many, many decades a very, very powerful force for evil in Iran and in the region,” he said.
Anand has said it would require “regime change” in Iran for Canada to re-establish the diplomatic relations that a previous government severed in 2012.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 3, 2026.
— With files from Dylan Robertson in Ottawa, and Maan Alhmidi and Rianna Lim in Toronto.
Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press
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” . . . “We were not informed in advance, we were not asked to participate,” Carney told reporters travelling with him in Australia.” . . . “
Interesting stating, because I watched him state that he had been informed before the strike, but was not asked to participate, but if so would decline . . . a few days ago in the media! So . . . just like him telling BC one thing about a pipeline and Quebec another, in his campaign to get elected as PM . . . what ever works at the time and who ever he is talking to at the time!
The Liberals have time and time again, by their actions, proven they are anti-semitic support the terrorist regimes, whether it be Gaza, Lebanon, Qatar, or Iran! All supporters of terrorism which is focusing on annihilating the Jews and the West . . . aren’t we part of the West?
They made the choice of supporting Hamas, blaming Israel for the attacks on Israel, even though the long list of international laws Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis broke could fill a book . . . instead the Liberals blamed and falsely accused Israel!
Iran just filled of 30,000 young people protesting in the streets with snipers on rooftops, and shooters on the streets firing indiscriminately into the crowds, blinging hundreds from the shotgun pellets, going into hospitals and killing those seeking aid and killing hospital staff for treating them.
They jailed what some say are a couple of hundred protesters, killing many while torturing and raping them. They raped a mother when she went to the police station to complain about killing their daughter who was peacefully protesting . . . this is what the Liberal government supports time and time again . . . we saw it in Gaza, we saw it in Lebanon, and we see it in Iran!
Have you learned nothing by the Ukraine-Russian war, that you cannot appease tyrants . . . Iran and Qatar were the major funders of Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi’s and the other proxies in next to Israel!
You are supporting terrorists! You allow the pro-Palestinians to burn our flag on our streets and campuses, scream death to the Jews, and death to Canada and we are Hamas . . . and do nothing! Instead you increase support to Gaza and Lebanon and Qatar!
England has been lost to the radical Muslims, France and Belgium, but Germany is waking up trying to stop the movement to take over Europe by these Muslims who want the world to be under Sharia law . . . what a great religion . . . they rape, behead, torture, kidnap, completely lie when negotiating and never stand true to the promises made . . . yep, that is who the Liberals support.
Palestinians (Lebanon included) still have the pay to slay program, funded with international funds, paying their people to kill Jews, any Jew whether it is a man, woman, child, baby . . . every Jew is a target and this program has been in place for years . . . they promised they would end it, but concealed it deeper . . . another lie! Canada funds to Lebanon help pay for this!
The Liberals inaction and who they openly support say it all!
The world changed on 9-11 2001 . . . who was behind it? These same radical Muslims! They want the West and Israel dead! . . . but you just keep on supporting the radicals by going Qatar to support them after going to China, then to the WEF . . . What a band of rebels the Liberals now support!!!!
The only difference between Trudeau and Carney . . . Carney is better with the smoke and mirrors and slimyness! There was another slithering entity in the Garden of Eden!
Thank God we all have to answer to him at one point and pay the price for our actions!