Proudly Canadian Week: Ania Hejnar sings Oh Canada
BREAKING NEWS: Explosions boom in Qatar amid Iranian threats to retaliate for U.S. strike on nuclear sites
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CTV News
13 minutes ago
- CTV News
Canada changes course, starts busing citizens out of Israel
A man walks through the damaged headquarters of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Iranian state television, in Tehran, Iran on Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) OTTAWA — Ottawa has started offering buses to Canadians looking to leave Israel and the West Bank, along with those who manage to flee Iran -- but few have taken up the offer days after Canada told citizens in the region to find their own way to neighbouring countries. Canada has updated its travel advisory for Qatar, which warns to exercise a 'high degree of caution,' after Iran attacked a U.S. base in the country. In a Monday afternoon media briefing, Global Affairs Canada said 6,000 Canadians have registered in Israel using the department's database, while slightly more than 400 have registered in the West Bank and around 5,500 have registered in Iran. The actual number of Canadians in any given region is usually much higher than the numbers registered with Ottawa, said Dennis Horak, a former Canadian ambassador who served in the Middle East. Canada started providing spots on buses for Canadians fleeing Israel days after peer countries like France and Australia offered the same service to their own citizens -- prompting criticism from former Conservative MPs. Global Affairs Canada said it has more spots open on flights out of the region than it has takers so far. Just 100 passengers have agreed to pay a cost-recovery fee of $400 to board a 265-seat flight Ottawa has chartered leaving Aqaba, Jordan for Athens on Tuesday. From Athens, Canadians can book their own flights home with support from embassy staff. Just 55 Canadians opted to take a bus Monday from Tel Aviv to Jordan, as did seven from the West Bank. Officials said the first bus was meant to leave Sunday but was delayed due to the security situation. Canada closed its embassy in Iran in 2012 and has stationed officials in neighbouring countries like Turkey, where 10 Canadians took a provided bus yesterday to travel out of the region. Ottawa has four buses stationed at a border crossing between Iran and Turkey. Ottawa has Canadian consular officials stationed in other countries neighbouring Israel and Iran to help Canadians fleeing the region find their way home. Officials say they have facilitated requests from more than 100 Canadians looking to enter Azerbaijan from Iran. The officials briefing media Monday said the number of Canadians registered in the region has fluctuated, reflecting the fact that 'hundreds' have found their own ways of getting out. Canadians in Iran have reported difficulties getting information on departures, given restrictions on internet access since Israel launched a missile attack on Iran on June 13. They have said congested streets and fuel rationing have made it extremely difficult to get to a nearby country. Canada has urged its citizens to 'avoid all travel' to Iran since March 2020. It extended that warning to Israel on June 13, where Ottawa previously has been asking Canadians to 'avoid non-essential travel.' The airspace has been largely closed over both countries and other parts of the Middle East as Israel and Iran exchange missiles. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand spoke Sunday with her Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi and told reporters she 'emphasized the importance of the safety and security of Canadian citizens in the region.' This appears to be the first official call between Ottawa and Tehran in years, said Horak, who led Canada's embassy until the Harper government opted to sever relations in 2012. 'This would have absolutely been the first time in quite some time,' Horak said. He said Anand might have asked the Iranians for permission to get Canadians out on evacuation flights once the airspace reopens. He said putting buses at Iran's borders is probably the only step Canada can take right now, given it has no diplomats in the country to co-ordinate logistics. 'We do have an obligation to try and assist, but obviously there are practical limits to that,' he said. 'Not being there doubles the challenges.' Horak said that consular duties like getting Canadians out of a war zone is 'the absolute priority' for both diplomats posted abroad and staff at Global Affairs Canada headquarters. Iran fired missiles Monday at the al-Udeid airbase in Qatar, which includes the largest American base in the Middle East. Iranian officials said they were targeting the U.S. in retaliation for its Saturday bombing of Iranian nuclear sites. The Qatari government said it thwarted the attack and had the base evacuated beforehand. The Canadian Armed Forces has been asked whether it had anyone at that base, which houses tens of thousands of troops from allied countries. Global Affairs Canada has advised Canadians to shelter in place when asked to do so by local officials but has stopped short of suggesting that citizens not visit Qatar. Horak said that there is not much Canada can do to help with the geopolitical situation, as it has limited influence in the region and a relatively small cadre of diplomats. 'The thing about the Middle East is you can deprioritize it all you want, but eventually it's going to force its way onto your agenda,' he said. By Dylan Robertson.
Toronto Star
44 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
Trump thanks Iran for ‘early notice' ahead of retaliatory attack on US military base in Qatar
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump thanked Iran for giving the U.S. and allies 'early notice' of Monday's retaliatory missile strike aimed at a major U.S. military installation in the Gulf nation of Qatar. The president expressed hope that Tehran — with its reprisal for the U.S. bombardment of three key Iranian nuclear facilities — had 'gotten it all out of their 'system'' and that the moment would lead to a de-escalation in the Israel-Iran war.
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Iran could ‘target' U.S. officials if Tehran believes regime's survival at risk, DHS says
Iran could try to 'target' U.S. government officials if Iranian leaders believe 'the stability or survivability' of their regime is at risk, according to a new Department of Homeland Security bulletin obtained by CNN. Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images via CNN Newsource Iran could try to 'target' U.S. government officials if Iranian leaders believe 'the stability or survivability' of their regime is at risk, according to a new Department of Homeland Security bulletin obtained by CNN. Other scenarios for potential Iranian targeting of U.S. officials include if Tehran considers them to be involved in the deaths of senior Iranian leaders or believes U.S. airstrikes will continue, according to the bulletin from DHS' Office of Intelligence and Analysis, which was sent to state and local law enforcement and is dated June 22. CNN has requested comment from the Iranian government's mission to the United Nations. On Monday, Iran fired missiles towards a U.S. military base in Qatar in retaliation for the U.S. strikes on Iran, according to two officials familiar with the matter. But the DHS bulletin is one of the clearest connections yet drawn by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement analysis about the potential violent backlash against civilian government officials for President Donald Trump's decision to bomb Iranian nuclear sites. 'It is our duty to keep the nation safe and informed, especially during times of conflict,' Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement to CNN when CNN asked DHS for comment on the bulletin. 'The ongoing Israel-Iran conflict brings the possibility of increased threat to the homeland in the form of possible cyberattacks, acts of violence, and antisemitic hate crimes.' The bulletin does not specify what the 'targeting' of U.S. officials might look like but the Justice Department has previously alleged that Iran has tried to kill Trump and his former national security adviser, John Bolton, in retaliation for a 2020 U.S. military strike that killed senior Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. 'We have not yet observed Tehran threaten this kind of retaliatory action in response to the U.S. airstrikes, and recent law enforcement action could challenge Iran's ability to execute a plot against U.S. officials in the short-term,' the bulletin said. Trump raised the topic of regime change in Iran in a social media post on Sunday evening. 'It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!' Trump wrote. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday said that Trump was 'simply raising a question' when he brought up the topic. CNN reported last year that intelligence about a threat from Iran to Trump led the Secret Service to step up security around the then-presidential candidate. Ultimately, those protections did not prevent a security lapse that allowed a 20-year-old lone gunman unaffiliated with Iran to nearly kill Trump at a July 2024 rally in Pennsylvania. Several top former Trump aides who continued to have security details due to the threat from Iran have since faced retribution from their former boss and had those details pulled. In the years since the U.S. killing of Soleimani, multiple former Trump administration officials have beefed up their personal security details. The new DHS bulletin, labeled 'For Official Use Only,' adds more context to the department's public warning on Sunday of a 'heightened threat environment' in the U.S., citing the possibility of 'low-level cyberattacks' and continued potential of lone-wolf attacks. Days before the U.S. strikes on Iran, law enforcement officials told CNN that they were reexamining known or suspected Hezbollah associates in the US, looking for possible threats that could arise as tensions with Iran increase. There's no indication of credible threats at this time, the sources said. Iran's security services often use hacking to gather intelligence on targets of assassination or surveillance, Iran-focused cybersecurity experts have told CNN. A former Trump official and onetime confidant of Bolton was hacked in 2022, in a possible effort to track Bolton's movements as part of the assassination plot, CNN previously reported, not naming the ex-official. 'In the short-term, we are most concerned that Iran-aligned hacktivists will conduct low-level cyberattacks against U.S. networks, including distributed denial-of-service attacks,' the new DHS bulletin obtained by CNN said. 'We are also concerned about cyber or physical attacks against critical infrastructure in the Homeland.'
