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In brief
- Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Australia has been asked for military support with the war in the Middle East.
- More repatriation flights continue to bring Australians home, while buses are also taking people to safer countries.
Australia is contemplating providing military support to Middle Eastern nations affected by Iranian attacks, while clarifying that its forces will not engage in any combat operations.
As more Australians stranded in the Middle East make their way back home, Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced that the government is deliberating on offering aid to countries impacted by Iran’s retaliatory measures.
During an appearance on ABC’s Insiders program, Wong stated, “Iran has targeted several non-combatant nations.”
“In response, requests for assistance have been made, and we are assessing these requests with due diligence,” she explained.
Wong emphasized, “We have no intention of joining any offensive against Iran, nor will we commit ground troops to Iranian soil.”
The United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran just over a week earlier, killing supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s retaliatory strikes have hit the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain, among other countries.
Wong said Australian military aid could help provide protection against Iranian drone and missile attacks.
“We have been asked, and we will consider it in accordance with (foreign policy) principles,” she said.
“If a decision is made, I’m sure that we will be transparent with the Australian people.
“This is not Iraq, and we are not the Howard government. We are not asking Australians to accept men and women being deployed into a ground war.”
The foreign minister added that any regime change in Iran should be directed by its citizens, putting her at odds with recent statements from US President Donald Trump, who said he should be involved in choosing the country’s leader.
“I think we all know that for there to be a sustainable change of regime, it has to be something that the people of that nation back and seek,” Senator Wong said.
More Australians evacuated by plane, bus
Another 151 Australians arrived in Melbourne on a flight from Dubai on Sunday afternoon, one of three due to land in Australia during the day after the airspace of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was briefly closed due to renewed missile strikes.
One of those flights, scheduled to arrive in Perth about 5pm local time with 93 Australians on board, was previously cancelled.
More than 1,500 Australians have arrived home on flights from the UAE since international services resumed.
Australians have also departed by bus out of the Qatari capital Doha, the base for Virgin Australia’s partner Qatar Airways, to Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh.
Three buses carrying 92 Australian citizens, permanent residents and their families have departed.
Assistant Foreign Minister Matt Thistlethwaite said commercial flights were still the best way for Australians to leave the Middle East.
But he admitted the cost of some flights might be a factor in people not being able to return, with some planes departing with large numbers of empty seats.
“We’ve seen that some of those flights haven’t been full, we’ve seen the cost of tickets,” he told Sky News.
Some 115,000 Australians were in the Middle East when the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran.
Australian Travel Industry Association chief executive Dean Long said flights leaving with empty seats should not be a concern.
“The good news is there’s not a huge number of people that we should consider stuck in the transit hub,” he told AAP.
“The people that are primarily in the Middle East now are choosing to be in the Middle East because that’s where they live.”
Government backs ADF personnel on US sub
Meanwhile, federal government ministers have downplayed the presence of three Australian defence personnel on a US nuclear submarine when it struck an Iranian ship near Sri Lanka.
Thistlethwaite said it was a normal rotation for the defence crews as part of the AUKUS security pact but would not say how senior the personnel were.
Opposition frontbencher Claire Chandler said the Coalition was supportive of the role Australian defence crews were playing.
“It’s fair to expect that our Australian Navy personnel would be working with US counterparts, particularly within the context of AUKUS,” she said, referring to the trilateral security and technology-sharing partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the US.
— With additional reporting from the Australian Associated Press.
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