Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says she has asked Oman for use of its airspace “if necessary, for Canadian citizens to get out” of the Middle East. But Anand’s office said yesterday the minister is urging Canadians to leave the region by their own means, and that there is no current plan for Ottawa to co-ordinate evacuations.
Anand’s comments to the Toronto Board of Trade on Tuesday came as the U.S. State Department said it was preparing military and charter flights for Americans who want to leave the Middle East, as other nations have done.
Anand says Ottawa’s top priority in the ongoing war involving Iran is safety for Canadians in the region and Oman still had “viable” airspace (as of Tuesday morning).
She said in a conversation with her Omani counterpart that she asked for Canada to use airspace of that country, which sits across the Gulf of Oman from Iran.
Global Affairs Canada says more than 97,000 Canadians have registered as being in the Middle East.
Anand says she has been in touch with multiple foreign ministers from the Persian Gulf and broader Middle East, “making sure that there are possibilities for Canadians to have supports in those countries.”
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