Canberra remains coy about a possible greater military role in the Middle East war despite requests from the US.
Both Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles say Australia’s role is confined to helping the United Arab Emirates (UAE) protect its airspace.
A RAAF E-7 Wedgetail early warning aircraft and air combat missiles is reported to have just left the country; click here for our story.
On a visit to Indonesia, Marles told journalists yesterday (March 12) that the aircraft will help the UAE, and other Gulf countries, defend their airspace, nothing more.
“We’ve had requests from a number of countries in respect of that, including the US, but our deployment of the E-7 is very much in response to the specific request that we received by the UAE,” he says.
It was a point backed up by Wong in a doorstep interview with journalists in Canberra yesterday.
“… we had received multiple requests and we were working through them … to the parameters of what we would provide,” she says.
“We are providing (a) defensive capability, not offensive.”
“We have engaged with partners about the request we have responded to, which is the request of the UAE.”
She indicated that they are talking to the US and other countries but their only response has been to the UAE request.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told journalists in Canberra: “My government has been clear that we’re not taking offensive action against Iran.
“We’ve been clear that we are not deploying Australian troops on the ground in Iran.”
Wong told journalists: “From day one I’ve made clear our view on the challenges around regime change and why that is unlikely to be able to be imposed from outside.”
CANBERRA TRAVEL ADVICE TO AUSSIES
Wong also told Australian expats who are still living in the region that they need to leave as soon as possible.
“Our advice is if you can secure a seat on a commercial flight, you should take it. Please do not wait until it is too late.”
She says flights are available, if limited, but their availability may disappear the longer the fighting goes on.
“We now have about 3600 Australians who have returned home. The advice from airlines and airports is the majority of those Australians who were in transit and caught in transit have returned home,” Wong says.
The federal Smartraveller website is warning citizens not to travel to Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Yemen, Syria, Qatar and the UAE: click here to visit their website for more details.
