Iran’s ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi warns of attacks on US bases
Iran’s representative to Australia has warned of escalating attacks on US bases in the wake of the bunker buster bombings.
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Iran’s ambassador to Australia has warned Islamic countries “won’t be silent” in the wake of the US bombing Iranian nuclear facilities.
Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi said the Iranian regime “do not have any sort of animosity” with Australia, but Australia should not side with the US.
“We are friendly with Australia … What we have to do is just remind them, what is the real situation on the ground, and just remove the misunderstanding, because Iran’s nuclear program has been legal and has been a peaceful, neutral program,” Mr Sadeghi told Nine News.
Mr Sadeghi denied Iran was enriching uranium toward weapons grade quality.
“Of course not. The director general of (International Atomic Energy Agency) Rafael Grossi is responsible in this bloodshed,” he said.
“IAEA inspectors had maximum access to Iran.
“Iran was unique in terms of accepting inspection. Therefore, Mr Grossi had a very bad failure in that regard.”
Mr Sadeghi also described Donald Trump as a “puppet” of Benjamin Netanyahu, for which there would be “consequences’.
Iran and its allies would not be dictated to, Mr Sadeghi said.
“Islamic countries all around the world would consider this (an) act of animosity and they won’t be silent inside the region,” he said.
“The US does have personnel and bases, either in southern part of the Persian Gulf or other regions in the West Asia, that they have bases.
“The other (consequence) is the ramification on the Persian Gulf from the navigation and just transfer of energy in the region.”
On Monday afternoon AEST, Iran’s state-run Press TV reported parliament had approved a plan to close the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important shipping routes. About 20 per cent of the world’s oil passes through the Strait; Oil prices had already risen to a five-month high before the news out of parliament.
In Australia, opposition politicians have been quick to criticise the Prime Minister’s lack of outreach to his US counterpart.
‘Why are we repeating this?’, Lambie asks
Australian senator and former soldier Jacqui Lambie has delivered an impassioned response to the Trump administration’s recent bombing of nuclear sites in Iran.
“We should not be supporting action because (Trump) has not played by the rule book,” Lambie told the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas on Afternoon Briefing.
“He took the trust away from the Iranian people. He told them two weeks … Did we not learn anything from the Middle East and Vietnam … why are we repeating this?”
“The last thing you want is driving (the Iranian people) back into the arms of terrorists.”
Senator Lambi likened Trump’s behaviour to somebody “playing on a game console,” and criticised the Albanese government’s approval of the bombings.
The senator also criticised Trump’s decision to launch attacks before the conclusion of the two-week period he had previously claimed he would give Iran to return to the negotiating table.
She said Trump had “taken away” the opportunity for Australians in Iran and Israel to be extracted safely and put “vulnerable citizens” of Iran at even greater risk.
Lambie said the Prime Minister “should have called him out on that sort of behaviour,” and that Mr Trump’s decision to send in bombers was “wrong”.
“My goodness, it is the lamb following the lamb here.”
Australia made “Irrelevant” according to Sharma
Australia’s former ambassador to Israel and Liberal senator Dave Sharma says Anthony Albanese has made Australia “irrelevant” after the US launched strikes on Iran and the Prime Minister failed to secure a meeting with Donald Trump.
Speaking to Sky on Monday, Senator Sharma said while Australia never had a “huge” amount of influence, “we’ve largely made ourselves irrelevant through this conflict”.
“I mean, look, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese didn’t have a meeting with Trump where this would have obviously come up if he’d had a discussion,” he said.
“We had Richard Marles on the television yesterday calling for de-escalation at the very same time, almost, that US B-2 bombers (were) flying from Missouri (and) were striking nuclear targets in Iran.”
He said Labor had “dealt ourselves out of a traditional role” as being a contributor and “major player” in international discussions.
“No one listens to our views seriously anymore in the on these issues, particularly in the Middle East,” he said.
“(On) Israel, the relationship with this government is very bad.
“The United States, we don’t yet seem to have a relationship with the new Trump administration, or at least key parts of it.”
Hastie lashes ‘flat-footed’ Albo
Acting opposition foreign affairs spokesman Andrew Hastie has accused Mr Albanese of a “flat-footed” response to the US attack and having poor instincts on the issue.
Speaking to ABC Radio National on Monday morning, Mr Hastie said he was happy to see his counterpart Penny Wong had backed in the US on the strikes however the delayed response demonstrated Mr Albanese’ mismanagement.
“I’m glad we have bipartisanship on this — that the world, as she said, has agreed Iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon,” he said.
“We support action to prevent that, which is why we supported the US strikes yesterday. I think, though, what yesterday demonstrated was that the Prime Minister is flat-footed.
“His instincts aren’t great on this, and he should have called an NSC meeting yesterday for an event of such significance. Instead, it’s happening this morning.”
Mr Hastie added the strikes “needed to happen” in order to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
“Iran would not come to the table, and the risk of them getting a nuclear weapon was huge, and it was a direct threat to regional stability and world peace,” he said.
“Intelligence agencies will debate when Iran planned to break out and put all the componentry together and have an actual nuclear weapon.
“But the risk was there, and that’s why action was taken, and I think that’s the context in which we need to see the strikes that took place yesterday.”
Albo’s ‘deathly silence’ blasted
Nationals leader David Littleproud and independent Jacqui Lambie have also called on Mr Albanese to address Australia’s stance on the conflict and US involvement.
Mr Littleproud labelled Mr Albanese not having made a public statement as of Monday morning a “deathly silence”.
“This was a decisive, strategic act that will make the world safer,” Mr Littleproud said.
“Now, we don’t want to see a protracted conflict. And it sounds as though the United States doesn’t want to be involved in a protracted Middle East conflict.
“There’s no way in the world that we could get ourselves involved in that.
“We do need to be able to defend ourselves first when we’ve got Virgin pilots finding Chinese ships in our waters. There is an underinvestment here that needs to be rectified.”
Mr Littleproud claimed the move showed the government was trying to “sit on the fence” due to domestic politics.
Senator Lambie urged against committing Australian forces that were “not ready”.
“What I do know is that Trump said, ‘You’ve got two weeks’, and within 48 hours you took them out,” she said.
“So if there was any sort of relationship still ongoing there that is now gone, that’s the first thing.
“I think the other thing is that you Americans said you weren’t going back into a war in the Middle East. Well, you just went back in.”
“But what I will say is that we certainly can’t back you up this time, and we don’t owe you anything.”
“I say this to (Mr Albanese) – we are not fit for purpose to be involved in any war. The most that you can offer anywhere around the world right now is peacekeepers.
“Do not follow the USA into this war for 20 years – (our troops] are not ready.”
‘Time for clarity’: Ex-PM’s call
On Sunday, former prime minister Scott Morrison accused the Albanese Labor government of not showing enough “clarity” on the Israel-Iran conflict.
“I think there’s been far too much ambiguity about this from Australia, far too much ambiguity, and it’s time for clarity,” Mr Morrison said.
“And the clarity is we were dealing with a theocratic authoritarian state that had sponsored an attack on close friends in Israel back on the seventh of October, and they have shown their true colours, and Iran is not a friend of Australia.”
Mr Morrison echoed these sentiments while speaking to 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Monday morning, saying the evening news was the time to “ensure that response was made clear”.
“When things are as they are, Australia
“When things are as they are, Australia needs to know where it stands and its allies need to know where Australia stands. I think that’s why clarity is so important,” he said.
Following reports Mr Albanese would give comment after a National Security Committee meeting on Monday, Mr Morrison said it could have met earlier but hoped they would “come out with a very strong statement in support of our allies”.
More to come
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