The Australian federal government has responded to the United States’ attack on Iran, hours after Donald Trump revealed he had launched a strike on three Iranian nuclear sites.
ICYMI, the president took to his social media platform Truth Social earlier today to announce a “very successful attack” on the nuclear sites of Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan.
Trump said a “full payload of bombs” was dropped on the “primary site” of Fordow, a heavily fortified nuclear bunker facility, and revealed that American forces had since moved “outside of Iranian air space” to return to the US.
“There is not another military in the World that could have done this,” Trump wrote when sharing news of the strike.
“NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!”.
The attack was met with both support and condemnation from US politicians, and now, the Australian government has issued a response of its own.
The statement, attributed to a spokesperson for the Anthony Albanese government, called for “de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy” (per The Guardian).
“We note the US President’s statement that now is the time for peace,” it read.
“The security situation in the region is highly volatile.”
The statement did not explicitly endorse the strikes, but it did reiterate the Albanese government’s existing position regarding the risk posed by Iran’s nuclear sites — a concern also shared by Trump earlier this week.
“We have been clear that Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program has been a threat to international peace and security,” the spokesperson said.
The statement went on to urge Aussies in Iran and Israel to “continue to monitor public safety information”, echoing Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong’s message on Friday for “Australians who are able to leave Iran to do so now”.
During a Sky News interview hours before news of the strikes broke, Defence Minister Richard Marles repeated calls for de-escalation in the region and again mentioned the “threat” of Iran’s nuclear program.
“We are making it clear that we see that the Iranian program represents a threat to the peace and stability of the region and the world,” Marles said.
“But we are worried about [the conflict’s] prospect for escalation… Both of those things can sit together.”
Meanwhile, in their own response, federal opposition leader Sussan Ley and acting shadow foreign minister Andrew Hastie said the Coalition supports the US attacks.
“The world can never accept a nuclear-armed Iranian regime and today the United States military has taken proactive action to ensure that we never need to,” Ley and Hastie said in a statement (per The Guardian).
“While Australians will never seek conflict in the world, we can never forget that the Iranian regime is a militantly theocratic autocracy.”
For her part, Australian Greens leader Larissa Waters said in a press statement provided to PEDESTRIAN.TV that Australia “must condemn” the strikes on Iran, which she described as “a terrifying and catastrophic escalation by the USA”.
“We have seen Australia follow the US into devastating and brutal wars that have done untold damage”, Waters said.
“We know that you cannot bomb your way to peace.”
The response from Canberra comes amid the broader conflict between Israel and Iran that has seen the two countries engaged in more than a week of aerial combat, resulting in deaths and injuries on both sides.
Israel launched the attacks on Iran on June 13, saying it wanted to remove any chance of Tehran developing nuclear weapons.
This story is developing.
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