Australia will send air to air missiles to the United Arab Emirates and deploy an E-7A Wedgetail surveillance aircraft to the Gulf for an initial four weeks after Iran’s attacks spread across the region.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the mission is meant to help Gulf states defend their airspace and protect Australians caught in the crisis.
The government says about 115,000 Australians are in the Middle East, including about 24,000 in the UAE and more than 2,600 have already returned home. About 85 Australian Defence Force personnel will be part of the deployment.
Canberra is presenting the move as limited and defensive. In a joint statement on Tuesday, the government said Australia would not take offensive action against Iran and would not send troops onto Iranian soil.
It said the Wedgetail would provide long range surveillance while the missiles would help the UAE respond to incoming strikes. The statement also said Australia would notify the United Nations Security Council of action taken under Article 51 of the UN Charter, the legal basis for individual or collective self defence after an armed attack.
The Coalition has backed the deployment as a defensive step while the Greens say it risks pulling Australia deeper into a growing conflict that split is at the centre of public concern.
Labor says Australia is helping defend partners and protect its own citizens, not joining an offensive campaign. Critics argue that once Australian aircraft, personnel and missiles are committed to the conflict, the line becomes much harder to hold.
Whether that means Australia is now at war depends on which definition is being used. Politically, the government is trying to draw a line between defensive support and joining the wider assault on Iran. Legally, some experts say that line matters less.
Australian National University professor Don Rothwell said Australia is now a party to the conflict in legal terms even if its role is limited and framed as defensive.
He also said Australian personnel on the Wedgetail would be treated as combatants under international humanitarian law that does not mean Canberra is launching its own war or sending forces into Iran.
But it does mean Australia has moved beyond diplomacy and evacuations into direct military involvement however narrowly ministers describe it.
