Anthony Albanese declares Australia backs US strikes to stop Iran’s nuclear program - a day later

Anthony Albanese backs the US operation at a press conference 24 hours after Midnight Hammer, adding he does not want to see an ‘escalation and a full-scale war’.

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Anthony Albanese has reiterated that his government backs the US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites but that it does not want to see an “escalation and a full-scale war” following the attack.

“The world has long agreed that Iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon and we support action to prevent that – that is what this is,” the Prime Minister said at a press conference in Canberra on Monday morning.

“The US action was directed at specific sites central to Iran’s nuclear program. We don’t want escalation and a full-scale war. We continue to call for dialogue and for diplomacy.

“As I have said for many days now, we are deeply concerned about any escalation in the region and we want to see diplomacy, dialogue and de-escalation.”

Mr Albanese called on Iran to “not to take any further action that could destabilise the region”.

Mr Albanese declined to say whether or not Australia was given warning – like the UK was – before the US struck Iranian nuclear sites.

“This was a unilateral action taken by the United States,” the Prime Minister said.

He was asked repeatedly whether this meant his government did not know this would happen but Mr Albanese declined to provide a direct answer.

He however noted the UK “has been one of the countries that’s been at the negotiating table with Iran for many years on its nuclear weapons program”.

Earlier Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said the Albanese government backed the US decision to strike nuclear facilities in Iran, the enunciation of support coming almost 24 hours after the US operation.

The government, in the hours after the attack, urged “de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy”, and did not explicitly back the US strikes.

But on Monday, Senator Wong said she backed the attack. “We support action to prevent Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon,” she told Channel 9. “And that is what this is. So the answer – the answer is yes.”

She said the US had not made a request for Australian military assistance.

Senator Wong said she remained “concerned, as are so many people around the world, about continued escalation”.

“No one wants to see full-scale war in the Middle East,” she said.

Senator Wong, when presented with the apparent difference between the US’s decision to strike nuclear sites and the Albanese government’s constant appeals for de-escalation, claimed she was broadly in line with key allies.

“What I said was Iran had to come to the negotiating table, and we urged Iran to come back to the negotiating table and engage in diplomacy,” she said.

“It’s the same thing. I think the US President was saying it’s the same thing that (UK) Prime Minister (Keir) Starmer was saying. It’s the same thing.”

On Monday, Mr Albanese called a meeting of the National Security Committee.

The Prime Minister has not made public appearances since returning from the G7 summit late last week. The National Security Committee is a subcommittee of cabinet.

Mr Albanese and Senator Wong chose against addressing Australians on Sunday after the US became directly involved in the conflict, ­instead issuing a statement from an unnamed government spokesman.

Senator Wong said she was “sure” Mr Albanese would address the public later in the day, responding to criticism the public had not heard from Mr Albanese after the US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. “It’s not an unusual thing for government to use spokespeople,” she told Channel 7 when asked why the government statement response yesterday was not from Mr Albanese.

While Mr Trump warned of “far greater” attacks against Iran unless it pursued peace, the ­Albanese government, through its spokesman, said it would “continue to call for de-­escalation, dialogue and diplomacy … We have been clear that Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program has been a threat to inter­national peace and security.

“We note the US President’s statement that now is the time for peace. The security situation in the region is highly volatile.”

The statement was in line with comments issued by Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles before the US intervention being made public, signalling Labor’s position in the conflict may not be impacted by the ­actions of Australia’s closest mil­itary ally.

Senator Wong’s belated media appearances on Monday morning follow Labor’s relationship with the US coming under growing scrutiny, given the Prime Minister has not secured a face-to-face meeting with Mr Trump.

The Coalition immediately threw its support behind Mr Trump’s attack, in a rare point of difference with Labor on foreign affairs since the May election drubbing.

Acting opposition foreign affairs spokesman Andrew Hastie condemned the Albanese government for being “far too ambiguous” on the issue.

“The US is a close ally. The US has a key role in re-establishing order and peace in the Middle East,” he said. “And Iran, by contrast, is a ­regime that sponsors terrorism. It sponsored Hamas, Hezbollah.”

Mr Hastie said Iran was moving towards “acquiring a nuclear weapon”, a development that was unacceptable.

“We could never accept a ­nuclear Iran,” he said. “Iran is a repressive theocratic autocracy, and it’s a sponsor of ­terrorism.”

Former prime minister Scott Morrison said it was “time for some clarity” from the Albanese government on the issue.

Mr Morrison – a co-architect of AUKUS who is now employed at a US-based national security think tank – said “there were no other options available” to Mr Trump.

“This has been the most decisive and the most comprehensive action to terminate that threat,” Mr Morrison told Sky News.

Former home affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo said the Albanese government couldn’t leave the US to do the world’s “dirty work” without Australian support.

After the government issued its statement via an unnamed spokesman, Mr Pezzullo said the US strikes were the only way to decisively set back Iran’s nuclear program.

“Australia should voice its support for this necessary action,” he told The Australian. “It cannot leave the dirty work of confronting threats to peace and stability such as that posed by Iran’s nuclear weapons program to the US and, in the case of Iran, Israel.

“Peace can ultimately only be preserved by strength and the will to use that strength. Australia should be ready to further assist the US to deal with retaliatory action by Iran, on the clear understanding that our ­forces need to remain focused on deterrence in the Indo-Pacific ­region.”

Mr Marles, who will this week represent Australia at the NATO summit in The Netherlands scheduled to be attended by Mr Trump, refused to say whether he believed Iran was close to securing a nuclear weapon.

“We do believe that the Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile program is a threat to the peace and stability of both the region and the world,” Mr Marles told Sky News less than two hours before Mr Trump announced the strikes had taken place.

“But our view also in relation to this conflict is that there is a real risk of escalation here, which is why we have used our voice to urge a de-escalation.”

Writing in The Australian, Strategic Analysis Australia director Peter Jennings described the Albanese government’s response as a “shambles”.

He accused Mr Marles of calling “three times for ‘de-escalation’ even as Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities were being dismantled in real time”.

“Calling for dialogue at this point is detached from reality and weakens Australia’s credibility among key allies,” he wrote.

He also accused Mr Marles of performing a “major breach of operational security” by describing a build-up of Australian personnel at the Al Minhad military base near Dubai.

“Al Minhad could clearly be an Iranian or proxy force target if the regime lashes out against the US and allies in the region. There was no need for Marles to announce a build-up of Australian Defence personnel,” he wrote.