Penny Wong has backed calls from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for greater clarity from Washington on how the war will end.
‘There is a very substantial economic cost to this war,’ the foreign minister told Sunrise on Tuesday.
‘We welcome the indication from President Trump that he wants to engage in dialogue.
‘And we know that this war is having consequences for Australians across our country, and particularly at the bowser.
‘Ultimately, the only people who know when it will end is the US, Iran and Israel.’
Since the conflict began, the federal government has backed US moves, arguing they are needed to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons and limit its capacity to destabilise global security.
Her comments follow fresh remarks from the Prime Minister, who urged President Trump to clearly outline America’s war objectives and commit to an end to the conflict, as fuel prices spiral, even though his three stated goals have largely been achieved.
‘I want to see more certainty in what the objectives of the war are and I want to see a de-escalation,’ Albanese said on Monday.
‘At the beginning of the conflict, the objectives were outlined as: one, stopping Iran getting a nuclear weapon – agree. And clearly (that) has been achieved. Secondly, degrading the opportunity that Iran has for engaging in military action either overt or through its proxies in Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. Clearly there has been substantial degrading of Iran’s position.
Albanese said achieving regime change in Iran would be extremely tough and called for a strategy explaining how it could succeed.
‘Very clearly history tells us that regime change imposed from outside is very difficult … because military action against a nation will tend to promote nationalism,’ he said.
‘I would like to see the Iranian regime that I regard as abhorrent and reprehensible replaced and I certainly stand with the Iranian people who’ve been subject to abuse, human rights atrocities, and oppression for a long period of time. I think that clearly whether that is going to occur or not is something that I think needs to be outlined.’
