A world of conflict loomed over G7 meetings: Matthew Bondy in National Newswatch

From the newness of the hosting head of government, to the global trade disruption caused so recently by the United States, to the proliferation of kinetic global conflicts that need managing, this conference could have easily been a disaster.

But it wasn’t.

For a rookie PM and an otherwise long-in-the-tooth Liberal caucus, the Carney government pulled off a masterclass in professional, polished, and serious summitry, of a fashion this nation has been deprived since 2015.

And Canada pulled down several major wins during the summit to which Carney, as host, also invited special guests including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and EU President Ursula von der Leyen.

Atop the list of key Canadian wins, the importance of developing robust critical mineral supply chains was stressed as one of six key takeaways. This is pivotal for Canada’s economic future. Our nation is home to some of the richest and most sustainably mined and processed critical minerals on the planet, powering industrialized economies and equipping democratic militaries.

Leveraging artificial intelligence, in which Canada remains a global leader, was underlined; as was the importance of combatting wildfires, a critical issue for our Western provinces.

Combatting transnational repression, too, was addressed in a joint statement. According to American journalist Anne Applebaum in her recent book, Autocracy, Inc., the world’s autocrats — including Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea — are increasingly coordinating moves to repress and disinform the global public square to preserve their respective dictators’ grips on power and fortune. It was wise and courageous for the G7 to directly call this out.

But instead of basking in the deserved glow of national achievement in pulling this summit off so professionally, Canada and the world are once again overcome, in the words of the Rt. Hon. Harold Macmillan, by “Events, Dear Boy, events.”

What is now playing out between Israel and Iran is the “Find-Out” phase of the Iran-backed colossal terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which claimed 1,200 lives and sparked a now nearly two-year-long war.

For decades, Israel and Iran have hesitated to attack one another directly at scale. When Hamas declared war on Israel on Oct. 7, Israel justly responded with its own war plans, and has been executing against them.

This led to combat not only with Hamas in the Palestinian Territory, but also Hezbollah who are an equally vile Iranian proxy terror group domiciled in lawless Lebanon to Israel’s north.

Along the way of implementing its response to 10/7, Israel clearly made the decision to prevent an even greater calamity: nuclear attack against the homeland by the most poisonous dictatorship on the planet. The Jewish State made the call that taking out the existential threat posed by Iran’s nuclearization programme was finally worth the risk of full-scale war.

This position is just — both morally and legally. Israel’s massive and daring attack to destroy Iranian nuclear infrastructure is proportionate to the suffering and threat posed by the mullahs, and a reasonable pre-emption of the kind of evil killing spree that Tehran has demonstrated to the world it relishes in visiting upon the Middle East’s only democracy.

And now, the die is cast.

United States President Donald Trump’s administration, split between an isolationist wing of its political base and a reflexively hawkish and pro-Israel wing — one that combines neo-conservatives and Evangelical Christians — is moving steadily from sounding like the former wing to sounding like the latter. Trump has called for Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s “Unconditional Surrender,” though it is unclear exactly to whom, and how, that surrender should take place.

Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late Shah of Iran, who makes claim to the Persian throne in exile, has issued statements internationally calling for the theocratic regime in Tehran to collapse and be replaced by constitutional monarchy. It is time for Iranians to “reclaim Iran,” he has said, noting that the Supreme Leader is “hiding like a frightened rat.”

Regime change is the only long-term solution to the threat Iran poses to the world.

We learned from Afghanistan and Iraq that regime change is as massive a challenge now as it was in 1945 in the cases of Germany and Japan. But we also know that al Qaeda hasn’t hit the North American homeland since 9/11, and Iraq no longer toys with the nuclear annihilation of its neighbours, including Israel.

The Islamists in Tehran are not to be confused with Islamic peoples and communities. The latter are human beings whose understanding of God rests in the teachings of the Prophet and the Holy Quran. The former represent the head of a global terrorist snake that is fuelling anti-semitism and terror the world over, from college campuses to peaceful kibbutzim.

The G7 meeting accomplished a lot. Freeing the Persian people — and supporting them through the transition to democracy, which is far easier said than done — would accomplish incomparably more.

Matthew J. Bondy is CEO of Bondy & Associates, and a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and the Centre for North American Prosperity and Security.