Former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy said he thinks Carney is setting a bad precedent by supporting the strikes on Iran.
Though Carney did tone down some of his rhetoric on the strikes during a news conference Tuesday, Axworthy said the prime minister should be more critical of the United States for violating international law.
“He still hasn’t made the fundamental issue about where does Canada stand on defending an international law … when it’s our ally, our trade partner that is committing the transgression,” Axworthy said in an interview on CBC’s Power & Politics.
Carney said he has not spoken to Trump since the U.S. and Israel launched their attacks on Iran. Asked what he thinks this reflects about his relationship with the U.S. president, Carney said: “I don’t think it says anything.”
“We took a position because we view the nuclear threat and the export terrorism of Iran as one of the greatest threats to international peace and security,” he added.
“In that limited sense, we support this action. That is not a blank cheque, that is not us participating, that is not us asking for something in exchange for that.”
Canada has ‘long supported’ neutralizing Iran’s nuclear capabilities: Carney
Carney said Canada “supports efforts” to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“Canada has long supported the imperative of neutralizing this grave global threat,” he said. “We take this position with regret because the current conflict is another example of the failure of the international order.”
He said “Iran having a nuclear bomb is a massive threat …would be the biggest threat.”
Carney added that Iran’s regime is “the biggest exporter of terror in the world” and had “murdered scores of Canadians.”
“Nobody has a civil nuclear program that’s buried a mile beneath the desert,” he said. “That is a threat.”
Former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy says Canada is not doing enough to defend international law after U.S. President Donald Trump launched strikes on Iran without authorization from the U.S. Congress or UN Security Council.

