By Kanishka Singh
March 9 (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on Monday about avoiding a wider conflict in the Middle East, Carney’s office said.
Here are some details:
• They “underscored the importance of intensifying diplomatic engagement to avoid a wider conflict with global consequences,” Carney’s office said in a statement.
• The statement said the leaders condemned Iranian missile and drone attacks on Qatar and Carney expressed Canada’s solidarity with Qatar.
• The U.S. and Israel began attacking Iran on February 28. Iran responded with its own strikes against Israel and Gulf states with U.S. bases. U.S. President Donald Trump has thus far offered shifting objectives and timelines for the war that has killed scores in Iran, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
• “In accordance with international law, the leaders called for an immediate end to attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure that only serve to destabilise the region and worsen the global economic and energy situation,” Carney’s office said, adding he and the Qatari emir discussed efforts to de-escalate the Iran war.
• At least 1,230 people have been killed in Iran, including 175 schoolgirls and staff killed in a missile strike on a primary school in southern Iran, according to non-profit humanitarian group Iranian Red Crescent Society.
• The Iranian army additionally says over 100 were killed after a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka’s coast last week.
• Eleven civilians have been killed in Israel, according to Israeli tallies. The U.S. military has said seven of its service members have been killed.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington)
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