Smoke billows over Tehran behind the Azadi Tower amid Israeli and US bombardment. Photo by Davoid Ghahrdar.

On February 28, the United States and Israel launched a war of aggression against Iran. In less than a week, the illegal strikes killed more than 1,000 Iranians. In addition to military installations, the bombings have hit Iranian heritage sites, civilian and energy infrastructure, police stations, and border guard posts.

The attacks destroyed an elementary school in southern Iran, killing 165 children. A New York Times investigation suggested that the US military was responsible for the school bombing, while Al Jazeera found that the massacre of was likely “deliberate.” Meanwhile, the CIA has revealed plans to arm Iranian Kurds against the Islamic Republic government in an apparent attempt to stoke ethnic conflict. The illegal US-Israeli strikes have also risked igniting a broader regional war—precisely the outcome that Iran’s assassinated leader, Ali Khamenei, had warned they would provoke.

Interim NDP leader Don Davies has condemned the war. The Communist Party and the Greens have done so as well.

Yet the war has received broad support from Prime Minister Mark Carney, who initially endorsed the US-Israeli strikes and, despite later acknowledging they appear inconsistent with international law, has refused to rule out Canadian participation.

Looking like a ‘lapdog of US hegemony’

The same day the strikes began, Carney and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand published a joint statement declaring Canadian support for the war: “Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security.” The statement also “reaffirms Israel’s right to defend itself and to ensure the security of its people.”

According to Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, UN member states have the right to self-defence only “if an armed attack occurs against a Member.” Iran did not launch an armed attack against either Israel or the United States. That makes the US-Israeli strikes an act of aggression rather than self-defence. Under this framework, the right to self-defence would belong to Iran—the country subjected to the attack—not to the states that carried it out.

Amid criticism from within the Liberal caucus, Carney doubled down on his support for the war several days later. The prime minister acknowledged that the US-Israeli attack violated international law but said he supported it nonetheless, albeit “with regret.”

Only later did Carney attempt to frame his position in the language of international law, offering a vague defence of the “rules-based international order” while still refusing to condemn either Washington or Tel Aviv for launching the strikes. The result was a familiar form of Canadian diplomacy: invoking international law in the abstract while declining to apply it to the actions of allies.

This is a striking stance from a head of government who made international headlines in January for his spirited defence of international law and global cooperation at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Canada’s Defence Minister David McGuinty has effectively endorsed the assassination of Khamenei, describing the late Iranian leader as a “force for evil.” Needless to say, the assassination of foreign heads of state is a clear violation of state sovereignty and the prohibition on the use of force.

On March 4, Carney went further. He stated that Canada could not “rule out participation” in the war against Iran—a war which the prime minister himself admitted was illegal. “We will stand by our allies,” he said.

In January 2026, Trump adviser Stephen Miller dismissed the concept of international law as mere “niceties.” Miller said: “We live in a world that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”

By openly supporting a war that he........

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