Canada in push for joint G7 and Middle East effort to de-escalate Iran war

Canada is pushing for a collective G7 and Middle East approach to de-escalating the Iran war, including off ramps that could bring an end to the conflict, according to the Canadian foreign minister Anita Anand.

Anand said she had drafted a “document of principles” to share with others “to reduce the risk of regional spillover, to minimise the collateral impacts on non-belligerent states and civilian populations and finally to mitigate local economic shocks”, and she had been speaking with every G7 country and every partner impacted by the war in the Middle East to stress the principle of de-escalation. Therefore, it is important to have a conversation about the off-ramps, by engaging with the countries being directly impacted by the retaliatory strikes in particular.

Levels of trust between the US and Iran are at an all-time low and Donald Trump may now have set the reopening of the strait of Hormuz as one of his war objectives. Europe and Canada have been largely left as bystanders in the US-Israeli bombing campaign, which Iran has retaliated against with missile and drone strikes on its Gulf neighbours and threats to shipping in the strait of Hormuz. Iran is seeking some kind of guarantee that it will not be attacked again, but that is not likely to be forthcoming in a format Tehran would accept.