DELHI \u2014 Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says attacks by Iran against Canada\u2019s partners in the Middle East must stop.<\/p>\n
Anand said in online posts she strongly condemns the targeting of Qatar and stands with the United Arab Emirates as it defends itself against escalation by Iran.<\/p>\n
The latest of those posts came shortly after it was confirmed Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was dead, after American and Israeli militaries launched an attack on the Middle Eastern country.<\/p>\n
Anand is in India with Prime Minister Mark Carney, who met Sunday with Indian Oil chairman Arvinder Singh Sahney and Coal India chairman and managing director Shri B. Sairam. <\/p>\n
Carney said a day earlier Canada is aiming to sign a comprehensive trade deal with India, which would double two-way trade by 2030. <\/p>\n
He wrapped up his visit to Mumbai, and has landed in New Delhi. The trip is part of an ongoing reset of the trade and diplomatic relationship with India.<\/p>\n
Anand and Carney have yet to react to Khamenei\u2019s death. Carney said Saturday evening prior to the confirmation that while he supports the U.S. action in Iran, Canada will not get directly involved in the conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will continue to provide all possible support to Canadians throughout the region and urge Canadians in Iran to shelter in place,\u201d Anand said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Iran has responded to the latest strikes by launching missiles and drones toward Israel and targeting U.S. military installations in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.<\/p>\n
At an event Saturday, Carney called Iran the \u201cprincipal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East\u201d and said it must never be able to develop a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump justified the military action by claiming that Iran has continued to develop its nuclear program and plans to develop missiles to reach the U.S. Trump also listed grievances stretching back to the beginning of the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
Carney said he and his finance and foreign affairs ministers have had a series of discussions in recent weeks with Trump and top officials about \u201cthe possibility of this happening\u201d if diplomatic efforts were not successful.<\/p>\n
Experts told The Canadian Press Canada\u2019s support for U.S. strikes against Iran could come with security risks, as the regime looks to retaliate against perceived enemies abroad.<\/p>\n
Thomas Juneau, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa\u2019s school of public and international affairs, pointed to a pattern of \u201ctransnational repression \u2014 targeting of Iranian-Canadian dissidents, human rights or democratic activists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now in an existential fight, the regime may well pull out all the cyber-stops.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Iranian state is now facing a fight to the finish, to its elimination effectively. They have in their minds absolutely nothing to lose,\u201d Sajjan Gohel, international security director at the Asia Pacific Foundation, said in comments before Khamenei\u2019s death was confirmed.<\/p>\n
Iran and affiliated groups have carried out numerous campaigns against far-flung foes. State-aligned cyberwarfare groups have monitored and harassed dissidents in Canada, the U.S., U.K., Germany and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
In 2024, the House of Commons condemned an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2026.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With files from The Associated Press and Christopher Reynolds<\/p>\n
Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DELHI \u2014 Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says attacks by Iran against Canada\u2019s partners in the Middle East…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-507490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}