Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and visiting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney have teamed up to urge a “de-escalation” of hostilities in the Middle East.

However, both leaders said it was premature to call for a total ceasefire until Iran had been rendered unable to produce a nuclear arsenal.

Albanese said on Thursday that the “world wants to see a de-escalation and wants to see Iran cease to spread the destinations of its attacks”.

“I also want to see a removal of the ongoing threat that has been there for such a long period of time, of Iran endangering peace and security and stability, not just in its own region, but here in Australia,” he told reporters in Canberra.

Carney said right now the world was witnessing a “spreading of hostilities”.

The US and Israel have been ramping up their attacks and President Donald Trump has foreshadowed a “big wave” to come, while Iran is hitting back at countries across the Gulf.

Carney said the targeting of civilians and tourism infrastructure had to end.

But a ceasefire would be premature “unless we’re in a position that Iran’s ability to acquire a nuclear weapon, develop a nuclear weapon and to export terrorism is ended”, said Carney.

Carney gave an address to the Australian parliament during his visit on Thursday.

He was given a ceremonial welcome with a gun salute when he arrived at Parliament House in the morning, and posed for selfies with school students visiting the building alongside Albanese.

A former head of Canada’s central bank, Carney has used his platform as prime minister to rally middle powers in the face of the changing world order, shaped by US President Donald Trump’s tariff regime and growing military actions.

He used his speech in Canberra to chart what he said should be the next steps, saying middle powers can be far more influential when they work together instead of competing.

“It is my fundamental belief – the result of an optimism I may have picked up from this great country – that from this rupture we can build something better, more prosperous, more resilient, more just,” he said.

Carney said trusted nations that could work together would be more effective at shaping the world in coming years.

“Great powers can compel. But compulsion comes with costs, both reputational and financial. Middle powers must convene to matter, but not everyone can,” he said.

“Middle powers like Australia and Canada hold this rare convening power. Because others know we mean what we say and we will match our values with our actions.”

Carney on the forecourt of Parliament House in Canberra on Thursday. Photo: Mike Bowers.

Meanwhile, Republicans in the US Senate voted down an effort to halt President Donald Trump’s war against Iran, demonstrating early support for a conflict that has rapidly spread across the Middle East.

The legislation, known as a war powers resolution, failed on a 47-53 vote tally as the US-Israel ‌war with Iran entered its sixth day.

The vote fell mostly along party lines, though Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky voted in favour and Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted against.

The war powers resolution gave lawmakers an opportunity to demand congressional approval before any further attacks are carried out.

The vote on Wednesday, US time, forced them to take a stand on a war shaping the fate of US military members, countless other lives and the future of the region.

Iran launched a wave of missiles at Israel on Thursday, sending millions of residents into bomb shelters.

The US–Iran war widened sharply, with a US submarine sinking an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka on Wednesday, killing at least 80 people, and NATO air defences destroying an Iranian ballistic missile fired towards Turkey.

The escalation came as the powerful son of Iran’s slain supreme leader emerged as a frontrunner to succeed him, suggesting Tehran was not about to buckle to pressure from the United States and Israel’s military campaign that has killed hundreds and convulsed global markets.

The ‌missile incident is the ‌first time that Turkey – which borders ⁠Iran and has NATO’s second-largest military – has been drawn into the conflict, but US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said there was no ​sense that it would trigger the Atlantic alliance’s collective-defence clause.

The war continued to paralyse shipping through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, choking off vital Middle East oil and gas flows.

Trump has pledged to provide insurance and naval escorts for ships to contain soaring costs, with oil prices rising on Thursday. At least 200 vessels remain anchored off the coast, according to Reuters estimates.

The US Navy will escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz “as soon as it can” but is focused on the conflict for now, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Fox News.

“No, not yet … We’ll do that as soon as we ⁠can. Right now, our Navy, and of course, our military, is focused on other things, which is disarming this ‌Iranian regime,” Wright said, when ​asked if any commercial vessels had requested US Navy assistance in the Gulf.

-AAP