CANADA PERSPECTIVE

CBC News quotes Iranian speaker Ghalibaf verbatim: 'Iranian forces are waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever.' The 'punish their regional partners forever' — is the broadest threat in the panel. It is not just the US that is targeted — it is every country that hosts them.

The Globe and Mail headlines the Peshawar meeting rather than the threats. Canada still seeks a diplomatic exit. Ghalibaf 'dismissed weekend talks as a cover while the US dispatches additional troops' — the Iranian speaker calls diplomacy cover for military escalation. The Globe and Mail is the only outlet reporting this Iranian rejection of talks, tempering other media's optimism about Pakistani mediation.

Canada, protected by two oceans and the longest border in the world with the US, reads these threats with distance that Gulf countries do not have. But Ottawa knows that each 'regional partner' threatened by Ghalibaf potentially includes bases where Canadians serve in NATO missions. The word 'forever' is what keeps Canadian military planners awake.