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The Australian Defence Force (ADF) and a crisis team are being deployed to help get stranded Australians out of Iran and Israel, Foreign Minister Penny Wong says, as the conflict between the two countries continues to escalate.
It comes as Wong called on Friday for “de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy” after announcing that the Australian embassy in Iran’s capital, Tehran, would close and foreign affairs staff and their dependents had been told to leave “based on advice about the deteriorating security environment”.
Wong said Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) consular staff would be deployed to neighbouring Azerbaijan as a crisis response team to offer border crossing support for those who can make it there.
This is the closest land route out from Tehran amid airspace closures, but Wong said it would take at least eight hours to get there by road.
“We urge Australians who are able to leave Iran to do so now if it is safe,” Wong said. “Those who are not able to do so or who do not wish to leave are advised to shelter in place.”
There are now about 2,000 Australians and their families who have registered for assistance to leave Iran, up from 1,500 on Thursday. In Israel, there are about 1,200 who want to evacuate.
Wong said defence personnel and aircraft were also being deployed to the Middle East as part of contingency plans to help evacuate Australian citizens and diplomats when the airspace opens.
“The deployment is for supporting people; it is not for combat purposes,” she said.
Wong said a small group of about 38 Australians travelled from Israel to neighbouring Jordan by bus overnight to fly home. Another small group travelled the same way a day earlier.
It was reported that some Australians in the earlier departure were given just 55 minutes’ notice by DFAT officials.
“When the opportunity arises to get people out, we take that opportunity,” Labor frontbencher Mark Butler told Seven’s Sunrise program on Friday.
Butler said the government was faced with a “difficult” situation given closed airspaces, but it was “exploring every opportunity we can to support people getting out in other ways”.
The announcement that Australia’s embassy in Tehran would close came after United States President Donald Trump, who has kept the world guessing about whether the US might join the war on Israel’s side, said he would make a decision within the next two weeks.
“Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in Washington, quoting a message from Trump.
The conflict between Israel and Iran erupted a week ago, when the former launched an attack against the Islamic republic’s missile capabilities, claiming it was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons.
Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 639 people and wounded 1,300 others, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group.
Israel says Iran’s retaliatory strikes have killed at least 24 and wounded hundreds more.
Iran has warned of “all-out war” if the US joins the military action.
At her late morning press conference, Wong also said she’d spoken with her US counterpart Marco Rubio overnight.
“We had a good discussion. A good discussion about the way through the conflict and issues in the Australia-US relationship and our bilateral cooperation,” she said.
“I emphasise there is an opportunity given what president Trump has said. There is an opportunity over the next two weeks for de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy.
“That is what we want to see and that is what the world wants to see. Iran must come to the table and it must stop any nuclear weapons program.”
US secretary of state Rubio has also recently held talks with the UK, French and Italian foreign ministers to discuss the war between US ally Israel and its regional rival Iran.
The US state department said Rubio and the foreign ministers agreed that “Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon”.
— With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press.
