About Iran, Mark Carney is a pathetic sycophant of Donald Trump. Remaining silent in the face of the US president’s genocidal threats is odious; justifying them is scandalous.
On Tuesday the prime minister was asked (in French) if he thought Trump went too far when he says he is considering destroying Iran? Carney responded by saying Iran is “one of the greatest threats in the current world” and claimed it poses an “existential threat to Israel and its allies.” After the PM was pressed further about Trump’s threats Carney said, “Well, there is a war underway, and he’s speaking the language of war.”
At the General Assembly on Tuesday the US president said he is considering a deal with Iran “that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country. Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic, and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?”
On Sunday, Trump made a similar declaration, saying he was considering “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal.” The US president also mused do “I blow the entire nation up.” Three days earlier Trump asked, “Do I want to go in and annihilate them or do I not?”
Previously the world’s most powerful man threatened to leave “very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran” and “a whole civilization will die tonight.”
Notwithstanding Carney’s statement, this is not simply the language of war. For example, Russian president Vladimir Putin isn’t threatening to “annihilate” or “wipe out” Ukraine. This is the language of an unhinged genocidal maniac. All Canadian politicians and commentators must stridently condemn Trump.
As the US/Israeli war of aggression has gone from moral outrage to strategic catastrophe, Carney has continued to placate the US president as he digs himself, region and world into greater trouble in Iran. On Tuesday, Canada joined the US, UK, France, Italy Japan and Germany to criticize Ansar Allah (Houthis) for responding to Saudi Arabia’s aggression. The G7 statement explicitly criticizes Iran noting, “We call on Iran to end its arming of and support for the Houthis in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions 1747, 2140 and 2216. Their reprehensible actions constitute a dangerous pattern of escalation that risks further exacerbating the conflict, undermining international trade and creating global economic instability.”
Two weeks ago, foreign minister Anita Anand and finance minister François-Philippe Champagne released another statement inverting the aggressor/aggressed relationship declaring, “Canada condemns and calls on Iran to immediately end its destabilizing activities in the Middle East.”
Released days before Canada introduced retaliatory tariffs, that statement was designed to placate Trump amidst the trade spat. At the time Carney told CBC that despite breaking off trade talks with the US he continued to speak to Trump about Iran and other international issues.
Over the past seven months the Canadian government has released dozens of statements criticizing Iran for responding to the aggression against it by striking neighbours hosting US military facilities. In recent weeks Ottawa has sought to bolster the Gulf monarchies that have become casualties of the US/Israel instigated conflict. Last week Ottawa signed a defence cooperation agreement with Kuwait, a country that had 200 Canadian soldiers stationed there before the recent war. In recent days foreign minister Anita Anand or Prime Minister Carney have discussed regional security with leaders of the UAE, Kuwait and Jordan. After meeting the UAE’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, Anand “reiterated Canada’s solidarity with the UAE and Canada has long sold weapons to the Gulf/Arab kingdoms and other Gulf partners in the face of ongoing attacks by Iran and its proxy groups in the region.”
Ottawa understands that Iran’s weakening of US and allied military presence has made Kuwait’s monarchy vulnerable to incursions by Iraqi militias while the rulers of Bahrain are hated by the oppressed majority Shia population. In Jordan, which is majority Palestinian, there’s growing opposition to US military installations and the country’s role in defending Israel from Iranian missiles. In Syria the Western -backed Jolani/Al Qaeda forces have faced a wave of protest, and the Saudi kingdom is under pressure from Ansar Allah after it miscalculated by breaking the ceasefire two months ago.
Canada should not seek to bolster a weakening colonial legacy, US/Israeli/monarchy-dominated structure in western Asia. And Mark Carney should unequivocally condemn Trump’s genocidal threats against Iran.
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