Australia will play a role in the US-Israel-Iran war after committing to deploy an advanced surveillance aircraft and air-to-air missiles for the \u201cdefence of the countries of the Gulf\u201d.<\/p>\n
In an extraordinary strategic shift, an Australian E-7A Wedgetail aircraft and unspecified quantity of advanced medium range missiles, known as an AMRAAM, has been sent to bolster Gulf nations\u2019 defences against Iranian retaliatory strikes.<\/p>\n
Anthony Albanese has insisted that it is a \u201cpurely defensive\u201d operation for an initial four-week period and Australia wouldn\u2019t engage in the US-Israel led strikes on Iran which started on February 28.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n While the Prime Minister has maintained that the decision was prompted by a request from the United Arab Emirates it came just hours after a phone call with US President Donald Trump early Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n He said it was among a \u201crange of requests\u201d from UAE president Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan but wouldn\u2019t disclose what else the Gulf nation had sought from Australia.<\/p>\n Mr Albanese told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday, however, that he was \u201cnot deploying Australian troops on the ground in Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n He said the priority was to keep Australians safe and assist nations in defensive actions against \u201cunprovoked attacks\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe United Arab Emirates alone has been forced to shoot down over 1500 rockets and drones,\u201d Mr Albanese said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis growing wave of dangerous and destabilising attacks from Iran puts civilian lives at risk. Of course, including Australian lives, of which there are more than 20,000 people based in the UAE.<\/p>\n \u201cMy government has been clear that we are not taking offensive action against Iran, and we\u2019ve been clear that we are not deploying Australian troops on the ground in Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cOur position remains that we do not want to see the conflict escalate.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are taking defensive action to support our partners\u2019 efforts to keep Australians safe.\u201d<\/p>\n It comes as The Nightly revealed on Monday that preparations were underway.<\/p>\n Defence Minister Richard Marles said that the UAE was \u201cenormously grateful\u201d for Australian assets, which he confirmed would leave for Australia today and be operational by the end of the week.<\/p>\n Mr Albanese described his conversation with President Mohammed bin Zayed as \u201cpositive\u201d and revealed the UAE had also penned \u201ca range of requests\u201d in writing to Australia but wouldn\u2019t give specific details on the war wish list.<\/p>\n \u201cThe conversation I had with MBZ was just a positive one. We received a written request from the UAE, and we responded. There were a range of requests,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mr Albanese also described his phone call at 2am AEDT with Mr Trump as warm but \u201cfairly lengthy\u201d.<\/p>\n He said the leaders primarily discussed the plight of members of the Iranian women\u2019s soccer team who have sought asylum in Australia after a silent protest at the Women\u2019s Asian Cup.<\/p>\n When asked directly by The Nightly if the pair also spoke about military support, he avoided directly answering, insisting it was a \u201cprivate conversation\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a range of discussions with \u2014 a fairly lengthy discussion with President Trump,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAs always, I refer to my previous other responses to questions such as that about private conversations.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a warm conversation between myself and President Trump, primarily about the Iranian soccer team, but obviously we also discussed world events.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Marles said 85 ADF personnel would be required to operate the aircraft in the region and insisted it was a priority to help protect the more than 24,000 Australian who live in the gulf.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is for the defence of the countries of the Gulf, in particular the UAE, where there are a significant number of Australians that reside,\u201d Mr Marles said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are really pleased to be able to make this contribution.<\/p>\n \u201cSpeaking with my counterpart in the UAE they are also enormously grateful for the contribution we are making.\u201d<\/p>\n Opposition leader Angus Taylor said the Coalition supported deploying the assets to help regional allies counter Iranian attacks on civilian infrastructure and secure vital trade routes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe very much welcome the decision announcement made by the government to support our allies in their work against this regime and particularly the Wedgetail,\u201d Mr Taylor said.<\/p>\n His Shadow Defence Minister James Paterson said it was a strategic move which would help securing Gulf waterways and airspace is a matter of Australian national interest amid concerns over global oil supplies.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they can be cleared, that will allow the resumption of the flow of oil through the Gulf,\u201d Mr Paterson said.<\/p>\n Greens Senator David Shoebridge accused Labor and the Liberals of being \u201cwar parties\u201d and accused Mr Albanese of acting solely at the request of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Australian public are watching in horror as Labor is dragging them into another US forever war,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve been led by the nose by Donald Trump into Donald Trump\u2019s war.<\/p>\n \u201cLet us be clear, there is no Australian national interest in sending our troops into this illegal war. Australia is not an ally of the UAE for very good reason \u2014 it has an appalling human rights record.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia will play a role in the US-Israel-Iran war after committing to deploy an advanced surveillance aircraft and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,12241,44,84,1720],"class_list":["post-530915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530915","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=530915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}