As the fragile ceasefire in the Iran war hangs by a thread, let\u2019s remember some important points.<\/p>\n
Iran has been a major sponsor of terrorism through groups in the region such as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.<\/p>\n
Iranian proxy Hamas carried out the murderous attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and kidnapped survivors.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s tentacles have also reached Australia. In August Australian intelligence agencies presented the Government with evidence that Iran was behind arson attacks including on the Adass Synagogue in Melbourne, leading Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to expel Iran\u2019s ambassador and move to list the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.<\/p>\n Mr Albanese\u2019s reaction when the United States and Israel launched the strike on Iran was supportive.<\/p>\n \u201cThe threat to international peace and security of the Iranian regime is real,\u201d Mr Albanese said. \u201cThe fact that they orchestrated attacks here in Australia on the other side of the world underlines the threat that this regime presented to the rule of law and to international norms of behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong also offered support. \u201cFor decades we know the Iranian regime has been a destabilising force through its ballistic missile and nuclear programs, support for armed proxies, and brutal acts of violence and intimidation,\u201d she said. \u201cAustralia supports action to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n That was all very clear. It is now also clear the mission has not gone how US President Donald Trump hoped, despite his boasts to the contrary.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz through which about 20 per cent of the world\u2019s oil and a fifth of its liquefied natural gas is carried is causing global economic pain.<\/p>\n In response the US announced on Monday that maritime traffic heading to and from Iranian ports through the Strait would be stopped but vessels transiting the Strait \u201cto and from non-Iranian ports\u201d would be allowed to pass.<\/p>\n Mr Albanese said the US had not asked Australia to help. But there is no operational reason Australia cannot lend a hand. Newly announced Chief of Defence Mark Hammond confirmed that the Royal Australian Navy was capable of deploying a warship to assist US-led efforts to reopen the Strait.<\/p>\n Earlier this month Senator Wong said Australia was part of a 40-member international coalition planning \u201cdiplomatic and civilian initiatives\u201d to get oil flowing again. Little has been heard of it since.<\/p>\n Mr Trump\u2019s rhetoric at times has been alarming and his verbal attacks on Western allies \u2014 including Australia \u2014 for what he says is a lack of support in the war, show little respect.<\/p>\n But we can\u2019t pretend this is just between the US and Iran and that we can watch on from a distance.<\/p>\n The West needs to get over any sense of wounded pride. These are not parlour games.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t want to commit to war. But we need to get on the front foot with the US to work out how we can help move beyond this.<\/p>\n Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the fragile ceasefire in the Iran war hangs by a thread, let\u2019s remember some important points. Iran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,37415,44,1721],"class_list":["post-604492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-editorial","tag-news","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604492","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=604492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}