What Israel's strike on Iran means for Australia

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Israel has confirmed it has launched strikes on dozens of nuclear and military targets in Iran.

It's a major escalation and comes as fears over Iran's nuclear capabilities have increased.

America is making it clear it wasn't involved in the actions, while Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Australia is alarmed alarmed over the escalation in tensions and fears of a regional war grow.

Welcome to Politics Now.

Hi, I'm Patricia Carvellis and I'm joining you alone because there is a massive unfolding story which has incredibly big implications, I think, for not only the Middle East but the world that I think deserves a bit of a talk around for you.

So I wanted to get into your ears.

Now,

Penny Wong was standing up this morning, I'm recording this on a Friday, standing up with the Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Anne Ali, announcing an aid package for people who, of course, have been dealing with famine and issues unfolding in the Palestinian territories and Gaza.

The support that we're announcing today equates to roughly 2.9 million rations of nutritional support.

That's enough to meet the needs of 8,000 children in Gaza for four months.

So they were announcing this and straight away Penny Wong was asked about this unfolding situation.

Australia is alarmed by the escalation between Israel and Iran.

This risks further destabilising a region that is already volatile.

We call on all parties to refrain from actions and rhetoric that will further would further exacerbate tensions.

We all understand

the need, the threat of Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile program.

It represents a threat to

international peace and security and we urge the parties to prioritise dialogue and diplomacy.

There hadn't even yet been confirmation that Israel was behind this, although now it absolutely has been confirmed.

So these are the facts as we know them because they're quite key.

And in fact, this has been coming for some time.

It's been widely speculated, but now it's on.

And it comes at a time when our Prime Minister is on his way to the G7.

That meeting with Donald Trump has still not been

confirmed, but it just demonstrates how the world has changed so quickly, even in the last couple of days, where everyone's focus has been on AUKUS and the Prime Minister raising the AUKUS agreement with President Trump.

And it seems that President Trump will now have much bigger issues to deal with.

So these are the issues that are unfolding.

And as I say, I'm coming into your ears, but this will change, I think, significantly.

But what we do know and has been confirmed is that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, says that they have hit key targets because of Iran's leading nuclear scientists working on what they say is an Iranian bomb.

He said that Iran's main enrichment facility has been targeted.

Now as Prime Minister, I've made it clear time and again, Israel will never allow those who call for our annihilation to develop the means to achieve that goal.

Tonight, Israel backs those words with action.

We struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear enrichment program.

We struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear weaponization program.

We targeted Iran's main enrichment facility in Natanz.

We targeted Iran's leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb.

We also struck at the heart of Iran's ballistic missile program.

The Israeli military is saying it has completed what is the first stage of strikes and that's key.

That just shows that we are really in a pretty dangerous unfolding situation.

They've said it's completed the first stage of strikes that included attacks on dozens of military targets, including nuclear targets in different areas of Iran.

And now Israel has got sirens going off.

They are waiting for the reaction.

So the Iran missile and drone attack on Israel is expected

in an immediate timeframe, the Defence Minister of Israel, Israel Katz, has said.

Following the pre-emptive strike by the State of Israel against Iran, a missile and drone attack against the state of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate timeframe.

So, if you are an Israeli right now, I mean, I suspect many Israelis are getting absolutely into their bunkers and all of the places that they go because there are sirens going off.

And of course, in Tehran,

there's also victims, as we are hearing, and of course, we'll hear more.

But the reason this is so significant is this has huge implications for that entire region.

Iraq has already closed its airspace, it's suspended flights to all airports.

So we're going to see what is, I think, a domino effect across the Middle East now, where we will see the reaction of that region and also a strong international reaction.

Now, so far, Penny Wong has responded.

I suspect in coming hours, we'll get a response also from

the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese and this comes at a really key time for him.

So much pressure on him as he goes to these big international forums for the meetings.

We've got already some reaction from others who we are very like-minded with.

For instance, there's already a reaction from the New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon who said that the Israeli airstrikes on Iran was a really unwelcome development and that the conflict raised serious concerns for the Middle East.

So the view from Australia, from New Zealand, will be that this puts the world in dangerous territory, that this inflames the situation significantly.

And we've been in a period where I think countries like Australia have been trying to de-escalate.

the situation, trying to bring the temperature down, if you like, in the Middle East.

So there is no doubt about it.

This is not a small incident.

This is a dangerous point in history.

In an address to the country, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel was at a decisive point in its history and was forced to act to stop Iran from producing a nuclear weapon in a very short time.

So his whole approach has been to try and establish the case that there was a sort of sense of immediacy here, that Israel has done this action to try to safeguard itself from imminent threat.

That's the argument that they're mounting.

The Israeli military earlier did confirm that the attacks were targeted on these military facilities.

Now, there are some really interesting parts of this.

Now, the strike came hours after the US and Israeli officials had warned one was imminent.

Well, I don't want to say imminent, but it looks like it's something that...

could very well happen.

Look, it's very simple.

Not complicated.

Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

Other than that, I want them to be successful.

I want them to be tremendous.

And it does sort of cut short what has been a U.S.-led effort to resolve this standover diplomatically.

So the U.S.

have been trying to de-escalate this.

Clearly, not successfully.

You'll recall that when Donald Trump was running for president, he talked about ending wars, and right now on his watch, we are seeing an unprecedented escalation of tensions and and real actions in the Middle East.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio

has put on the record that the US wasn't involved in the strikes but did confirm that Israel advised the Trump administration it would take this action in its own self-defense.

So the US tipped off about this, which is why in the last I think couple of days we've heard more and more about this being perhaps on the cards.

But the US is not part of it.

In fact, part of the warnings that they're now putting out is that their own troops in the region should not be targeted by Iran in these retaliatory actions.

I think if I can just bring it back before I let you all go, and I'm sure you'll be really all over this story in all different ways.

I think it's really important to say that for Australia, where we've been playing, I suppose, the role of a middle power, urging de-escalation and peace in the region.

We've been strengthening in many ways our position against

the radical parts of the Israeli government, the two ministers we've sanctioned this week in relation to comments

around Palestinians.

But what we can see here is that this puts Australia as a middle power in this international inflamed situation in a really different position.

I think it really radically shifts the optics for the Prime Minister going into these meetings over the next few days.

It'll be interesting to see if he is able to secure a meeting with Donald Trump.

I suspect there will be shifts now for Donald Trump in terms of what he does and what he's engaged with over the next couple of days.

In many ways, international forums like the G7 could never be more important than at times like this

because it's so important that the world speaks increasingly as one to try and de-escalate these sorts of alarming situations, but really, the world is, I think, at a precipice, a really important point in time, and we'll be watching it and covering it, of course, around the clock.

But I just wanted to give you a taste of what I think is a really extraordinary set of circumstances.

It's sobering, isn't it, to look at these events unfold and just think about how dangerous the world is.

Well, that's it for politics now.

David Spears will be in your podcast feed tomorrow, and of course, you can always send questions to Fran and I to the partyroom at abc.net.au.

See you later.