Mark Carney should have condemned the US attack on Iran

In fact, it’s hard to imagine anything less likely to strengthen international security than this sort of nuclear law of the jungle, in which Washington takes it upon itself to determine who shall have nuclear weapons and who shall not.

Of course, Iran should not have a nuclear weapon — but neither should any other country, under any sane international order.

However, nine countries do have nuclear weapons. Israel, for instance, has 90 nuclear warheads. And the U.S., which is fully committed to Israel’s defence, has the world’s most technologically advanced nuclear arsenal.

So it seems odd to assume that Iran’s nuclear capabilities are the problem, especially since the International Atomic Energy Agency said last month that it saw no evidence Iran had plans to develop a nuclear weapon.

But this is really about Israel ensuring it remains the region’s only nuclear power.

Israel struck Iran first in mid-June, before calling for Washington’s help, in order to maintain its nuclear supremacy as it redesigns the Middle East — blocking any prospect of a Palestinian state. The only obstacle is Iran and the militant pro-Palestinian groups it supports.

But denying the Palestinians a state simply guarantees endless violence.

The only viable Middle East solution, argues Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, is a negotiated peace deal, guaranteed by the UN Security Council, that provides for Israel’s security, a Palestinian state and a peaceful, verified Iranian nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adamantly opposes such a plan.

Western nations (including Canada) support a two-state solution, but they refuse to put any pressure on Israel, even though Israel’s fierce resolve to block a Palestinian state is a primary cause of instability in the region.

It’s extremely disappointing that Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is purportedly carving out an independent role for Canada in the world, has gone along with Washington in singling out Iran as the sole problem in the region, despite Israel’s refusal to even consider Palestinian statehood.

Carney seems to have backed off from the bold stand he took last May when, breaking with Washington, he teamed up with France and Britain in condemning Israel’s “egregious” actions against the Palestinians in Gaza.

But Canada has fallen back in line behind Washington, failing to put any real pressure on Israel even as Israel has escalated its horrific war on Gaza, including killing more than 400 starving Palestinian women and children lining up at food distribution sites.

There’s a dark irony in all the scolding of Iran, given the role the West played in overthrowing Iran’s extremely promising democracy in the early 1950s.

Against great odds, the Iranian people rose up against the British-backed Shah in 1951, supporting the popular democratic leader Mohammed Mossadegh and his quest to nationalize Iran’s oil. The Shah was forced to flee.

The oil nationalization was extremely popular with Iranians, but it infuriated British and American oil companies. They successfully pressured their governments to overthrow Mossadegh (with the support of Canada) and bring back the Shah in 1953. Once reinstalled, the Shah reopened Iran to foreign oil interests.

As the Shah ruthlessly suppressed dissent, opposition gravitated toward the mosques, where a fierce underground resistance movement took shape. In 1979, it fomented a revolution and took power, creating a brutal theocratic dictatorship that still rules.

The West has never accepted responsibility for the horrors it unleashed on Iran by overthrowing Mossadegh. Many commentators apparently feel the West was justified in toppling his enormously popular, well-functioning democracy in order to retake control of Iran’s oil — which surely belonged to the West but somehow ended up under Iran’s soil.

This article originally appeared in the Toronto Star.