SYDNEY — Prime Minister Mark Carney said he supported Washington’s strikes on Iran “with regret” as they demonstrated the continued decline of the rules-based international order.
Taking questions from reporters for the first time since the 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. Some Liberal MPs challenged that move, saying Canada must stand up for the protection of civilians and territorial sovereignty even when it involves adversarial states.
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.
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.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita 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.
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 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 Mark 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, as well as Maan Alhmidi and Rianna Lim in Toronto.
Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press
