Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addresses the House of Representatives at Parliament House on Tuesday.Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images
Australia will send missiles to the United Arab Emirates and deploy a military surveillance plane to the Gulf in response to a “growing wave of dangerous and destabilizing attacks from Iran,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters in Canberra, Mr. Albanese cast the move as vital to protect the hundreds of thousands of Australians affected by the conflict, which has spiralled since the U.S. and Israel began bombarding Iran on Feb. 28, with Tehran responding with attacks against U.S. assets and allies across the region.
“The first priority of my government is and always will be to keep Australians safe,” said Mr. Albanese. “There are around 115,000 Australians in the Middle East, around 24,000 of those in the UAE. Helping Australians means also helping the UAE and other Gulf nations to defend themselves against what are unprovoked attacks.”
Canberra has dispatched an E-7A Wedgetail long-range reconnaissance plane – recently deployed to Europe as part of assistance for Ukraine – for a four-week mission “in support of the collective self-defence of Gulf nations,” the Australian Prime Minister’s office said in a statement. In response to a request, the government will also provide medium-range air-to-air missiles to the UAE, it said.
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Alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Mr. Albanese has been one of the most supportive Western leaders of U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran, which has already killed hundreds, injured thousands and destabilized the region, with increasingly dire ramifications for the global economy.
Asked by a reporter whether Australia risked being dragged into the war, Mr. Albanese said, “What we’re about here, we are not protagonists. What we are doing is providing for defence of the UAE and of Australian citizens.”
“My government has been clear that we’re not taking offensive action against Iran,” Mr. Albanese said. “And we’ve been clear that we are not deploying Australian troops on the ground in Iran.”
The Prime Minister’s support for the U.S. has raised concerns in Australia, however, including within his own centre-left Labor Party and from the opposition Greens, upon whom Labor rely for support to pass legislation through the Senate.
In a statement, Greens Leader Larissa Waters said, “Labor shouldn’t be sending troops to help a military that’s killed 150 schoolchildren in a primary school bombing. That will only escalate an illegal conflict that’s already spiralling out of control, and leave Australia trapped in yet another forever war.”
“Every day Trump and Netanyahu’s demands of Australia keep growing,” Ms. Waters said. “It was refuelling US spy planes yesterday, a recon jet and missiles today, and could be ever more troops tomorrow. Labor has no red lines when it comes to appeasing Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.”
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Speaking to public broadcaster ABC, Defence Minister Richard Marles said the U.S. was not directly involved in the request for Australian military assets, though he acknowledged Washington has encouraged allies to provide such assistance.
“The request we’ve responded to is the UAE, I want to be really clear about that,” Mr. Marles said.
He would not comment on whether Canberra had sought advice from the Attorney-General on Australia’s involvement, saying, “We’re not about to go through that in public.”
Asked whether his country was now “at war,” Mr. Albanese said, “What Australia is participating in is collective self-defence with the countries of the Gulf.”
But experts who spoke to the ABC said this distinction was not so cut and dried.
“Even though our contribution might be small-scale, we are now a party to the conflict,” Donald Rothwell, an expert on international law at the Australian National University, told the ABC. “That applies irrespective of a distinction Australia may make between engaging in ‘offensive’ and ‘defensive’ conduct.”
Australia was gripped this week by the fate of five Iranian football players, who fled their team while in Australia for the Asian Cup. Concerns were raised after they refused to sing the Iranian national anthem in a game against South Korea on the Gold Coast, in an apparent act of protest.
On Monday, Canberra said it had issued five humanitarian visas to players who wished to stay in Australia.
“Australians have been moved by the plight of these brave women,” Mr. Albanese said Tuesday. “They’re safe here and they should feel at home here.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly said that thousands of people had been killed in the current Middle East conflict. Hundreds have been killed and thousands injured.