Help for the Gulf expands

Australia will deploy an E-7A Wedgetail aircraft to the Persian Gulf as Iran’s retaliatory attacks continue to escalate across the region, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Tuesday.

The deployment comes as 12 countries across the Middle East continue to be targeted by Iranian missiles and drones, with the United Arab Emirates alone forced to shoot down over 1500 projectiles.

“This growing wave of dangerous and destabilising attacks from Iran puts civilian lives at risk, including Australian lives,” Albanese said.

The Wedgetail will provide long-range reconnaissance capability to help secure the airspace above the Gulf, with approximately 85 Australian Defence Force personnel deployed for an initial four weeks.

The aircraft left Australia on Tuesday and is expected to be operational by the end of the week. Australia will also provide advanced medium range air-to-air missiles to the UAE in response to a request.

Albanese said there were around 115,000 Australians in the Middle East, including 24,000 in the UAE.

“Helping Australians means also helping the UAE and other Gulf nations to defend themselves,” he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles emphasised that the deployment was purely defensive.

“I want to be really clear about that. That is the basis upon which our personnel are being deployed and this equipment is being deployed. It is for the defence of the countries of the Gulf,” Marles said.

Albanese said the government had been clear it was not taking offensive action against Iran and was not deploying Australian troops on the ground in Iran.

Last week, Albanese confirmed to Sky News that there were Australian defence personnel on board a United States submarine that sank an Iranian warship.

“Well we wouldn’t normally confirm such an issue, but given our NSC meetings and the public interest, I can confirm that there were three Australian personnel on board that vessel,” he said.