He explained that various forms of assistance could be involved, including the participation of ships, support in demining, intelligence and cybersecurity. He stressed that Ottawa remained in contact with partners and analysed what would be the most effective solution.
McGuinty pointed out that all of these scenarios are considered only on the presumption that there will be a halt to the fighting. He added that the abroad Minister Anita Anand and the Chief of Defence Staff, General Jennie Carignan, besides participate in discussions on further activities.
Last week, however, the Canadian abroad Minister reported that Ottawa was not consulted on the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
Threat to global security
A week earlier, Canadian, UK, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan leaders had condemned Iran in their common position for attacks against merchant ships and civilian infrastructure, including gas and oil facilities. They besides assessed that the actions of Iranian forces led to the de facto blocking of the Strait of Ormuz.
Signatories stressed that freedom of navigation remains 1 of the fundamental principles of global law and that disrupting maritime traffic and destabilising global energy supplies is simply a threat to global security. At the same time, they declared their readiness to support actions to guarantee the safe functioning of the way through the Strait.
Millions of barrels of oil all day
The Ormuz Strait is 1 of the most strategically crucial places in the mediate East. This is the only marine road that oil from the Gulf states can hit global markets. The way now remains bagged in connection with the armed conflict between Iran, Israel and the US, which has been going on since 28 February.
According to data published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in fresh years more than 20 million barrels of oil were transported each day through the Strait, which, according to various calculations, accounted for about 20-30% of the world's transport of this natural material. This way besides plays an crucial function in LNG supply, where the average regular transmission of liquefied natural gas was little than 11 billion cubic feet in the same period.
