Tony Abbott has signalled that he is close to making an announcement about sending more Australian troops to Iraq.
The prime minister said Australia was talking to its friends and allies, including New Zealand, about “what more we can do to help the Iraqi security forces”.
“I’ll have more to say in the next day or so,” Abbott said in Sydney on Wednesday.
New Zealand’s prime minister, John Key, on Tuesday foreshadowed that Australia might send more troops to Iraq as part of a joint mission to fight extremist groups.
Key told the New Zealand parliament his country was sending 143 troops to Iraq. “This is likely to be a joint training mission with Australia, although it won’t be badged an Anzac force,” Key said.
The chief of the Australian defence force, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, told a Senate committee on Wednesday morning that “the government of Australia is yet to make a final decision” on sending more troops to Iraq.
Abbott, who is due to visit New Zealand later this week, indicated an announcement was imminent.
“It’s well known for some time that we have been talking to our allies, we’ve been talking to the Iraqis about what more we could do to assist the Iraqis to reclaim their own country,” he said.
“It’s not up to Australia, America or any other outsider to reclaim Iraq for the Iraqis but it is important that the death cult be defeated and, as you know, Australia has been involved quite significantly for quite a few months now in the campaign to disrupt, degrade and ultimately destroy the Isil or Daesh death cult which has promoted this new dark age over so much of the Middle East.”
The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, said earlier on Wednesday she would not “pre-empt any statement by the prime minister or defence minister” about the dispatch of additional Australian troops.
“We’ve already got 200 special forces in Iraq. New Zealand is now joining the coalition and we certainly welcome that,” she said. “Our efforts in Iraq are under constant review and discussion.”
Australian special forces troops were in Iraq to help train local forces, Bishop said.
“We have about 400 personnel involved in the air strikes which are taking place to disrupt and deter Daesh, or Isil, in its advances. So we are already there with a significant presence. The composition of that presence is under constant review,” Bishop said.
Abbott is due to travel to New Zealand on Friday for the annual Australia-New Zealand leaders’ meeting. “I will discuss a range of bilateral and international issues, including combating terrorism, foreign fighters and the situation in Iraq,” the prime minister said.
On Saturday Abbott rubbished a “fanciful” story in the Weekend Australian that claimed he had suggested Australia should unilaterally send thousands of ground troops to Iraq.
“The idea there was a meeting in late November where I formally asked for advice and formally suggested that a large Australian force should go unilaterally to Iraq is wrong, just wrong,” he said.
Binskin and the defence department secretary, Dennis Richardson, said on Monday in a statement: “At no point has the prime minister raised that idea with the ADF and/or the Department of Defence, formally or informally, directly or indirectly.”
