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Defence Minister Richard Marles has stressed that the federal government is focused on promoting freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region as it weighs up a request from the United States to send a warship to dangerous waters in the Middle East.
The United States Navy requested that Australia send a ship to the Red Sea to respond to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels attacking ships passing through the sea lane. The Houthis claimed responsibility this week for attacking a Norwegian-flagged oil tanker off the coast of Yemen, claiming it was heading to Israel.
Shiite Houthi soliders in Yemen, said to be backed by Iran, are at war with Arab-backed forces.Credit: AP
The US request came as the government voted in favour of an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza at the United Nations General Assembly, a move that angered Israel and pleased Palestinian advocates.
Labor MP Josh Burns said it was wishful thinking to believe the UN resolution would lead to the end of the war, as he expressed dismay that the motion did not include a condemnation of Hamas.
As Israel’s war against Hamas grinds into its 12th week, the government appears sceptical about taking its military involvement in the Middle East to a new and riskier level.
Marles said the US had made a request at an operational level through the Combined Maritime Forces in Bahrain for Australia to join an international coalition in the Red Sea.
“We will consider this request in due course, but I would note that the focus of our naval efforts right now is on our immediate region,” he told reporters in Darwin.
Marles noted that he had this week welcomed back HMAS Toowoomba from a deployment in the Indo-Pacific. During the deployment, divers on the ship were injured in a sonar pulse attack by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, and it sailed through the Taiwan Strait accompanied by the Taiwanese military.
Marles emphasised that the government was “looking at ways in which we can assert freedom of navigation within our immediate region, where our sea lines of communication are at their most acute, where we see most of our trade pass”.
“[That] is the focus of our existing naval efforts and that will continue to be so, but we will consider this request in due course,” he said.
Marles noted that Australia had military personnel embedded now with the Combined Maritime Forces and had previously deployed naval vessels to the Middle East.
Australia’s Anzac-class frigates, which have only eight missile cells, could be vulnerable in a hostile shooting environment while the nation has just three more heavily armed Hobart-class destroyers.
Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder said the US was “continuing to take the situation in the Red Sea extremely seriously”.
“The actions that we’ve seen from these Houthi forces are destabilising, they’re dangerous and clearly a flagrant violation of international law,” he said.
“And so this is an international problem that requires an international solution. We do continue to consult closely with our international allies and partners on implementing a maritime task force.”
Burns, who is visiting Israel as part of a cross-party delegation organised by the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council lobby group, said: “It doesn’t matter how many resolutions the United Nations passes: the only way out of this terrible situation is for the hostages to be released and for Hamas to be removed from power in Gaza.”
He continued: “Any ceasefire cannot be one-sided and must be negotiated between the two parties. The war won’t end by wishing for it to happen.”
After visiting a detention centre in southern Israel where the Israeli military is interrogating Hamas prisoners, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was committed to pushing ahead with the war.
“There is no question at all,” he said. “I say this in light of great pain, but also in light of international pressure. Nothing will stop us.”
Ismail Haniyeh, the chair of Hamas’ political bureau, said in a televised speech in Qatar: “Any arrangement in Gaza or in the Palestinian cause without Hamas or the resistance factions is a delusion.”
Earlier in the day, Marles’ electorate office in Geelong was cordoned off by police tape after the walls were plastered with pro-Palestinian slogans including “Stop arming Israel. River of blood on your hands Marles”.
Marles said: “Perhaps what’s most important for me to observe is that in moments like this, my focus is on the health and safety of my staff. I’ve been in contact with them and they are in good shape.”
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