Anti-war and peace groups and parties have been quick to condemn Australia’s support for Israel and the United States’ illegal attacks on Iran, which started on February 28.
They point to the fact that neither the US nor Israel, which have committed genocide in Gaza for two-and-a-half years, are not going to liberate anyone.
At the time of writing, Human Rights Activists News Agency is reporting at least 104 attacks in 85 incidents across 19 provinces in the past 24 hours of the US-Israel war on Iran, resulting in 31 total deaths (civilian and military). Since the conflict began, 1097 people have been reported killed, including 181 children. One bomb hit a school, killing more than 100 children.
The US has killed Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, along with several other military officials.
The US has already struck Iran nearly 2000 times and is threatening a “third wave” of attacks — the “biggest yet”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s excuse for the new war was convoluted. He told the media on March 2 that the US knew Israel would strike Iran and that Iran would retaliate, and therefore the US had therefore struck “pre-emptively”. President Donald Trump has contradicted Rubio, saying he, Trump, ordered the US military to join Israel’s attacks because Iran was about to strike.
The Omani foreign minister said Iran and the US had been conducting talks on Iran’s uranium stockpile until the day before the attacks and a deal was within reach.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was the first Western leader to offer support for the illegal strikes. He said he supports the US “acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent Iran from continuing to threaten international peace security”.
When asked about breaking international law, foreign minister Penny Wong dodged the question, saying the “US and Israel should ... explain such a legality”.
Bob Carr, a former Labor foreign minister, said it was “frightening” that Labor is not speaking up for international law.
“There is a lot to say about the huge breach of international law in the joint US-Israel attacks on Iran, but one observation after the first few days of fighting is that the lie on which the war is based is being exposed. Iran’s feeble response to the assault shows they don’t come close to posing a significant threat to the US and Israel,” Carr told the Sydney Morning Herald on March 3.
Labor Against War said “Recognising the ‘rupturing’ of the ‘rules based order’, shouldn’t mean you just let it rip Anthony Albanese.”
The Australian Greens said that while the Iranian people deserve to be free from persecution and domination, history shows that US military attacks “do not produce peace and do not produce justice”.
Greens leader Larissa Waters criticised Labor for making Australia complicit by “allowing Pine Gap and other US military bases here to be used … to gather intelligence”.
Greens foreign affairs spokesperson David Shoebridge paid tribute to the “bravery of the Iranian people pushing back against a brutal regime”.
He said a Trump-led military assault is not a pathway to freedom or a democratic government. “This attack, like the last, is a pathway to chaos and more killing in Iran.” He called on Australia to offer safety to those fleeing the regime.
Socialist Alliance said the rogue countries’ illegal bombing of Iran does nothing to “advance the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people and represents a danger to the entire world”.
It called out Labor’s hypocritical refusal to cut ties with Israel and said Australia must break with AUKUS — the military alliance that dictates Australia’s foreign policy and relations with other countries.
The Independent and Peaceful Australia Network said the US and Iran must immediately return to negotiations. It demanded Labor assure the country that no Australian facilities or personnel were used in the attacks on Iran.
The Sydney Anti-AUKUS Coalition (SAAC) said while the US and Israel justify their attacks because of the nuclear threat, “their real aim is regime change and regional domination”.
“No amount of alleged support for the Iranian people’s struggle justifies breaking international law; it promotes the idea that might is right and international laws and agreements on sovereignty are meaningless.”
SAAC has called a protest for March 14.
The Maritime Union of Australia condemned the attacks as illegal acts of aggression that drag the world closer to nuclear catastrophe.
It said workers know that war is “the brutal expression of an imperialist system that puts corporate profit, arms dealers and Great Power rivalry ahead of human need”.
“From Palestine to the Gulf, it is ordinary workers, their families and communities who are killed, displaced and silenced, while the war industries, their shareholders and their political agents cash in.
“For maritime workers in particular, every billion dollars poured into missiles, submarines and bases is a billion dollars denied to building a sustainable, job-rich maritime future.”
It said rather than feed the war machine, Australia should instead fund a publicly owned fleet of Australian-crewed coastal trading vessels, rebuilding our shipbuilding capacity, and guarantee secure, union jobs on the waterfront.
Dr Rateb Jneid, president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, condemned the joint military strikes, saying it is not about defence but about “power and destabilisation”. He called on the Labor government to adopt a principled, independent foreign policy grounded in international law.
Palestine Action Group (PAG) in Gadigal/Sydney and Free Palestine Naarm/Melbourne called on Labor to sanction Israel and cut all military ties. “Only the Iranian people have the right to determine the future of Iran and only they can win their own liberation, not the war criminals Trump and Netanyahu,” said PAG.
Palestinian community leader Nasser Mashni said on social media that the bombing of Iran follows previous Western imperialist interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have brought nothing but “death and destruction”.