The Australian Defense Force (ADF) and a crisis team are used to help get stranded Australians from Iran and Israel, says Foreign Minister Penny Wong, while the conflict between the two countries continues to escalate.
It comes as Wong called on Friday for “de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy” after he announced that the Australian embassy in the capital of Iran, Tehran, would close and staff of Foreign Affairs and their persons were told “based on advice on the deteriorating security environment”.
Wong said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) consular staff would be deployed in the neighboring Azerbaijan as a crisis response team to offer a border crossing for those who can make it there.
This is the nearest land route from Tehran in the middle of airspace closures, but Wong said it would take at least eight hours to get over the road.
“We urge Australians who are able to leave Iran now when it is safe,” said Wong. “Those who cannot do this or who do not want to leave are advised to protect.”
There are now around 2,000 Australians and their families who have registered for help to leave Iran, from 1500 on Thursday. In Israel there are around 1200 who want to evacuate.
Wong said that defense personnel and aircraft were also used in the middle east as part of the emergency plans to help Australian citizens and diplomats evacuate when it opens airspace.
“The implementation is for supporting people; it is not for combat purposes,” she said.
Wong said that a small group of around 38 Australians traveled by bus to neighboring Jordan by bus at night to fly home. Another small group traveled in the same way a day earlier.
It was reported that some Australians received only 55 minutes of notice in the earlier departure by DFAT officials.
“When the opportunity occurs to get people out, we seize that chance,” Labor Frontbencher Mark Butler told the Sunrise program of Seven on Friday.
Butler said that the government was confronted with a “difficult” situation that had closed air spaces, but it was “every opportunity we can investigate to support people in other ways”.
The announcement that the Australia embassy in Tehran would close came after the US President Donald Trump, who had the world guessed whether the US could join the war on the side of Israel, said he would do that Make a decision within the next two weeks.
“Based on the fact that there is a substantial chance of negotiations that can take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision to go or not for the next two weeks,” said the White House of the White House Karoline Leavitt Reporters in Washington, who quotes a message from Trump.
The conflict between Israel and Iran broke out a week ago, when the first launched an attack on the rocket options of the Islamic Republic and claimed that it was about to develop nuclear weapons.
Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 639 people and injured 1,300 others, according to an Iranian human rights group established in Washington.
Israel says that Iran’s retaliation strikes have killed at least 24 and have injured hundreds more.
Iran has warned about “all-out war” if the US joins the military action.
During her late morning press conference, Wong also said that she had spoken with her American counterpart Marco Rubio at night.
“We had a good discussion. A good discussion about the road through the conflict and issues in the relationship between Australia and our bilateral cooperation,” she said.
“I emphasize that a chance has been seen what President Trump said. There is a chance in the next two weeks for de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy.
“That is what we want to see and that is what the world wants to see. Iran has to come to the table and it has to stop every nuclear weapon program.”
The American State Secretary Rubio recently also had conversations with the VK, French and Italian Foreign Ministers to discuss the war between American ally Israel and his regional rival Iran.
The US Department of Foreign Affairs said that Rubio and the Foreign Ministers agreed that “Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon”.
– With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press.
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