Speaking on his way to the NATO Summit, Carney said \u201ca period of extreme de-escalation\u201d had been put in place during the six days of mourning for Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran at the start of the war.<\/p>\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1bb1d8efdfd3c678550b43a8bef70dec.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte greets Mark Carney, Prime Minister of canada during a welcome ceremony of allied heads of state and government, on July 08, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey.<\/p>\n
Carney said Tehran had been \u201cacting irresponsibly\u201d by attacking Saudi and Qatari targets during that period of mourning. Several media reports have identified the casualties as a Qatari liquified natural gas carrier and a Saudi oil tanker.<\/p>\n
The prime minister reiterated his strong language about Iran when talking to Canadian reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s irresponsible. It\u2019s not right, and the United States has responded as appropriate to look to stop this behavior and put in place these conditions to reestablish ceasefire,\u201d he said in response to a question from National Post.<\/p>\n
Speaking of the U.S.-Iran peace deal, Carney said it is \u201cevidently a fragile situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/a22a10dea74f14957826a7578e6d30e6.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
This handout picture taken and released by Turkish Presidential Press Office on July 7, 2026 shows Turkey\u2019s President Tayyip Erdogan (CR) and his wife Emine Erdogan (R) welcoming Canada\u2019s Prime Minister Mark Carney (CL) and his wife Diana Fox Carney (L) during a reception hosted for heads of stade and government attending the 36th NATO Heads of State and Government Summit at the Presidential Complex in Ankara.<\/p>\n
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte agreed with Carney that the U.S. strikes were \u201cabsolutely necessary\u201d given that Tehran was violating the ceasefire in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is totally crucial that the U.S. forcefully react,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n
Rutte said the situation in Iran would come up during the meeting of the North Atlantic Council, which includes the leaders of all 32 members states on Wednesday, but also set some clear expectations on what the alliance thinks Tehran should and shouldn\u2019t do.<\/p>\n
That includes NATO reiterating that Iran should \u201cnever, ever\u201d get its hands on a nuclear capability and that freedom of navigation is \u201ccrucial\u201d in the Strait of Hormuz, he said.<\/p>\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2eb0c5b2dc6da8c7671c152df8f1deb6.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (L) and Turkey\u2019s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greet Canada\u2019s Prime Minister Mark Carney as he arrives for a NATO Summit at Bestepe Presidential Compound in Ankara, Turkey, July 8, 2026.<\/p>\n
But not all allies were as supportive of the U.S. strikes on Iran as Carney and Rutte.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is justified to try to avoid that Iran develops a nuclear weapon, of course,\u201d said the Prime Minister of Belgium, Bart De Wever, as he made his way to the summit.<\/p>\n
Whether the U.S. operation was \u201cwell planned, well executed, that\u2019s another matter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
President of Lithuania Gitanas Naus\u0117da shared his concerns about further escalation of the crisis in the Middle East but said he stands in solidarity with Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very important that we continue the work for a diplomatic solution to the Iran war, everyone is working very hard on that and we\u2019re confident we can reach a final deal,\u201d said for his part Prime Minister of the Netherlands Rob Jetten.<\/p>\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/f98b8066b3a15e28ebed15c41b55f971.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s Prime Minister Mark Carney (L), his wife, Diana Fox Carney and Turkey\u2019s Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek review troops during a welcome ceremony at Esenboga Airport to attend the 36th NATO Heads of State and Government Summit in Ankara on July 7, 2026.<\/p>\n
The developing situation in the Middle East overshadowed a summit which was supposed to showcase how Canada and European allies are stepping up with billions of dollars more in defence spending to share the burden with the United States in case of a war.<\/p>\n
Trump first commented on the U.S. and Iran trading fire overnight in a meeting with Rutte.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have attacked very powerfully last night the very dangerous people from Iran,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re sick. There\u2019s something wrong with them. We said, \u2018Go and do your funeral stuff,\u2019 and instead of that, they start shooting rockets at ships.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I don\u2019t like them at all. And, frankly, I think we waste a lot of time with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump also criticized NATO allies for not coming to his country\u2019s help in Iran and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, while also insisting that the U.S. did not need their help anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cItaly turned us down and Germany turned us down and France turned us down,\u201d he said during a bilateral meeting with Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s okay. But why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars (in NATO), and they\u2019re not there for us? We\u2019ve always been there for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Rutte described the European lack of participation with Iran as \u201cisolated cases.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if the ceasefire with Iran is over, Trump said: \u201cTo me, I think it\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to deal with them, but they\u2019re scum. You know what scum is? They\u2019re scum, they\u2019re sick people, they\u2019re led by sick people, and they\u2019re vicious, violent people.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, he said he will allow his negotiators to keep talking with Iranian negotiators.<\/p>\n
National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com<\/p>\n
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com<\/a> and sign up for our newsletters here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANKARA, TURKEY \u2014 Prime Minister Mark Carney said Washington responded \u201cas appropriate\u201d to Tehran\u2019s attacks in the Strait…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[162,200,111,14118,40332,201,909],"class_list":["post-121233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mark-carney","tag-donald-trump","tag-iran","tag-mark-carney","tag-mark-rutte","tag-nato-allies","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-tehran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}