Ottawa, Canada - Canada's top military commander said that the country's armed forces are in talks to potentially assist Gulf states as they defend themselves from Iranian attacks.

"The Gulf states must also indicate what they need," Canadian Defense Chief Jennie Carignan told reporters in French at a defense and security conference in Ottawa on Thursday.

"We are in communication with them to get an idea of the needs because it's clear that if they don't need us... we won't look at options to support them," she explained after revealing that a meeting has been set for early Friday morning.

The meeting will reportedly concentrate on a joint proposal among allied countries to implement military measures to protect Gulf countries against retaliatory strikes from Iran.

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Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait – which all host US military assets – have been struck by Iranian missiles in response to the unprovoked war launched by Israel and the US.

Carignan said the type of support Canada would provide hasn't been decided yet, but he made a point of stressing that it will not participate in offensive operations.

"We are not talking about participating [in] Epic Fury, per se," Carignan said, referring to the US assault's codename. "This is not a mission that we are considering."

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday said that he couldn't rule out military participation in the escalating conflict and insisted that Ottawa will stand by its allies.

"We will always defend Canadians," Carney said during a press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. "We will always stand by and defend our allies when called upon."