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Pakistani man says Iran forced him into plot to kill Trump, media say

A Pakistani man accused of planning to kill US President Donald Trump told jurors on Wednesday that he did not willingly work with Iran's elite ​Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to devise the plot, media said. The Justice ‌Department accused Asif Merchant of trying to recruit people in the United States in the plan targeting Trump and other US politicians in retaliation for Washington's killing of the ​Corps' top commander, Qassem Soleimani. The Corps has a central role in Iran, with ​its combination of military and economic power and an intelligence ⁠network. "I was not wanting to do this so willingly," the New York ​Times quoted Merchant as telling a court during his trial for terrorism and ​murder-for-hire charges, adding that he participated to protect his family in Tehran. Prosecutors rejected Merchant's claim, citing a "lack of evidentiary support for a true duress or coercion," according to a ​letter sent on Tuesday to the judge in the ca...
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Canadian PM says Iran conflict a failure of the international order

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday that the ongoing conflict in the Middle East was a "failure" of the international order, and the United States had not consulted its allies before striking Iran. US and Israeli forces launched strikes against Iran on Saturday after negotiations over Tehran's nuclear programme stalled. The war has since spread beyond Iran's borders, with Iranian attacks hitting Gulf states including Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, as well as US embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, prompting Washington to close diplomatic missions across the region. Read: Iran war enters fourth day in 'smoke and blood' as global markets slide "The current conflict is another example of the failure of the international order, despite decades of UN Security Council resolutions, the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency in a succession of sanctions and diplomatic frameworks," Carney said during a visit to Australia in a speech at the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney. "Iran's nuclear threat remains, and now the United States and Israel have acted without engaging the UN or consulting with allies, including Canada." De-escalation of hostilities needed Earlier, Carney called for calm in the Middle East and said all countries engaged in hostilities, including the US and Israel, must respect international rules of engagement. "Canada calls for a rapid de-escalation of hostilities and is prepared to assist in achieving this goal," Carney told reporters. When asked about previous comments he made supporting the UN Charter's prohibition of the use of force, Carney said "it appears that these actions are inconsistent with international law," but said it was up to the US and Israel to make the case whether they were consistent with international law. "It's for others more expert than me ... to make that determination," he said. Read More: Americans stranded in Middle East told not to rely on US evacuation helpline Carney said Canada was not informed in advance of the strikes and was not asked to participate. "We would not have been in a position ... to take a judgement that met our standards if we had been asked to participate," Carney said. After the strikes began at the weekend, Carney said Canada supported the US "acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security." March of the middle powers Carney is on a multi-leg trip across the Asia-Pacific region also taking in Japan and India, with his stop in Australia aimed at bolstering relations between the two so-called "middle powers". "Canada is focused on building a dense web of connections, ad hoc coalitions that work issue by issue, with partners that share enough common ground on those issues to act together," Carney said on Wednesday. Also Read: Iran hits CIA site in Riyadh as US seeks to arm Kurdish forces against Tehran "In contrast, great powers can afford to go it alone. They have the market size, the military capacity to leverage, to dictate terms. Middle powers like Canada do not." Australia and Canada are expected to deepen cooperation in areas such as defence and maritime security, critical minerals, trade and artificial intelligence, Carney's office said ahead of the visit.

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