PM regrets Trump’s Iran decision

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered a thinly veiled rebuke to the Trump administration and Israel over their opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, setting the stage for a divisive G7 summit next month.

Trudeau said he regrets President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the 2015 agreement that was negotiated by the world’s major powers.

“We will respect the capacity of individual countries to make their decisions about foreign policy,” Trudeau said Wednesday.

“But for Canada’s purpose, we make our decisions around foreign policy here in Ottawa, not in Washington, not elsewhere.”

The prime minister said he expects the Iran decision to be a topic of discussion when he hosts Trump and their G7 counterparts in Quebec at their annual summit next month.

It is shaping up as a discussion that will expose a major cleavage between the U.S. and its G7 partners.

The major European countries, China and Russia are all continuing to express their support for the agreement following Trump’s decision to end U.S participation and restore sanctions against Iran.

Nimrod Barkan, Israel’s ambassador to Canada, said Trump’s decision actually gives Western countries the leverage they were lacking to curb Iran’s development of long-range missiles and its deployment of fighters to Syria that continue to threaten Israel.

“I’m not doubting the good intentions of France, Germany and Britain and Canada — they have no leverage, now they do,” Barkan said in an interview.