{"id":515372,"date":"2026-03-03T06:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T06:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/515372\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T06:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T06:05:10","slug":"australian-troops-safe-after-drone-strikes-air-base-near-dubai-as-hastie-says-rules-based-order-a-fantasyland-australian-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/515372\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian troops safe after drone strikes air base near Dubai as Hastie says rules-based order a \u2018fantasyland\u2019 | Australian foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coalition frontbencher Andrew Hastie has declared anyone who thinks the rules-based order still exists is living in a \u201cfantasyland\u201d, amid an escalating US-Israel war on Iran<\/a>, and as the government confirmed Australian troops in the region were safe after a weekend drone strike.<\/p>\n

Australian troops posted at the defence force\u2019s headquarters in the United Arab Emirates are all accounted for after a weekend drone strike, the federal government said, amid the growing conflict sparked by US and Israeli bombings in Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The defence minister, Richard Marles<\/a>, confirmed on Tuesday all Australian troops working at the Al Minhad airbase were uninjured in the strike, which came as Iran launched retaliatory attacks on nearby countries following strikes led by the US president, Donald Trump, and Israel\u2019s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the Australians who are there are safe and accounted for,\u201d Marles said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got more than 100 personnel across the Middle East. Most of them are in the UAE where we\u2019ve had an operational headquarters at Al Minhad for many, many years now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

It comes as the government defended the bombings, amid criticism from international law experts that the US and Israel had acted without legal authorisation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Marles told ABC TV Iran<\/a> had been seeking to acquire a nuclear weapon, which breached international non-proliferation agreements, but said it was a \u201cmatter for the United States and Israel to justify the legal side of their actions\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s absolutely no doubt that the world could not trust Iran in terms of what it was doing with its nuclear program,\u201d Marles said. \u201cAnd it is utterly essential for global security that Iran be prevented from acquiring this capability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liberal MP Andrew Hastie<\/a> however dismissed those concerns about the international rules-based order, saying it was \u201cnice to talk about\u201d but irrelevant when Trump acted as an \u201capex opportunist\u201d in the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that exists any more, and anyone who says it does is living in a fantasyland. This is a new world order.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the world is governed by power, and I prefer a powerful US re-establishing deterrence, rather than other countries like Russia, you know, using might to advance its national interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Hastie, an SAS veteran, warned war \u201cis a very, very risky business\u201d and said Iranians could be wondering if they are \u201ctrading one tyrant for another\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a blunt instrument for regime change, which I think is part of Donald Trump\u2019s strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m circumspect about regime change, having been involved in the wars of the last 15 to 20, years, and we\u2019ll watch closely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Australia has maintained a smaller force at Al Minhad airbase since the end of operations in Afghanistan. Last year, Defence said there were about 50 core ADF staff and a total of 70 to 80 Australians at the base at any time.<\/p>\n

Known as HQME, the headquarters has supported ADF missions and contingencies since 2003.<\/p>\n

Contingency planning to help the 115,000 Australians in the region is under way in Canberra, including moves to help thousands of travellers caught up in airline disruption.<\/p>\n

The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, spoke with her counterpart in the UAE, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He said the UAE was working hard to safely allow flights out of the country, and confirmed that Australians affected by travel disruptions in the UAE were being accommodated and provided with meals.<\/p>\n

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was working through thousands of registrations from the UAE and other countries to confirm the situation and welfare of Australian citizens, permanent residents and their dependants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coalition frontbencher Andrew Hastie has declared anyone who thinks the rules-based order still exists is living in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-515372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}