Blair’s remarks put him out of step with Mélanie Joly, who said that an escalation of Israel and Iran hostilities could plunge the Middle East into ‘all-out war’
Federal Defence Minister Bill Blair said on Monday that he supports Israel’s right to do whatever it deems necessary to defend itself from Iran, even attacking its oil and gas infrastructure.
“When we talk about (Israel’s) ability to defend (itself), certainly that would include missile launch sites, military installations, airfields from which these attacks are being launched,” the defence minister told reporters.
When a reporter asked whether that included attacking oil production facilities in Iran — something U.S. President Joe Biden has tried discouraging Israel from considering — Blair said he thought such an attack would be “appropriate.”
“Israel has a right to defend itself against such attacks and diminish Iran’s capabilities of attacking them,” he said.
“We need this war to stop,” Joly told reporters shortly after Iran’s October 1 missile attack against Iran, in apparent retaliation for Israel’s campaign against Iran’s terrorist client Hezbollah, and the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
National Post
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