Tony Abbott tells parliament of potential for expanded role in Iraq, though no specifics have been discussed

Australia has received a “general request” surrounding a potential military role in Iraq and is “considering what we may be able to make available”, Tony Abbott has told parliament.



The prime minister raised the prospect of a greater role for Australia in countering the advance of Islamic State (Isis) in an update on Wednesday.

He did not elaborate on the nature of the general request, but the government has previously signalled that it was prepared to consider making Australian Super Hornets available for US-led air strikes on Isis targets in Iraq.

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has participated in humanitarian airdrops of supplies to Iraqi people trapped by Isis. The ADF also announced on Wednesday that it had completed a mission to deliver arms for use by Kurdish Peshmerga forces fighting Isis in northern Iraq.

Australian political leaders expressed their revulsion at the emergence of a video purporting to show Isis beheading a second captive American journalist, Steven Sotloff. The masked man in the video, speaking in a British accent, demanded the US and other countries “back off and leave our people alone”.

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, opened parliamentary question time by asking for an update on the situation in Iraq following reports of “the brutal murder”.

Abbott said Australians had awoken “to yet another decapitation at the hands of this hideous movement which I don’t refer to as a state because it is a death cult”.

Australia was in the process of airlifting military equipment to the Kurdish forces in Erbil, following a request from US and with the support of the Iraqi government, he said.

Turning to the potential for an expanded role for Australia, Abbott said: “We have received no specific request to engage in actual military action against [Isis]. Nevertheless, we have received a general request and we are considering what we may be able to make available.

“But I stress, no specific request has been received, no specific decision has been made.

“Any request would be judged against the criteria that I have previously laid before the house: Is there a clear overall objective? Is there a specific role for Australian forces? Have all the risks, specific and general, been considered? And is there an overall humanitarian objective that is consistent with Australia’s national interest?”

Abbott said any decision would be made by the cabinet and the Labor opposition would be consulted. “We will do what we can to defend our national interest, to support our citizens, to advance our values and to build a safer and more secure world,” he said.

The prime minister told parliament the Isis movement was a threat not just to the people of Iraq and Syria, but “to the entire Middle East and ultimately a threat to the wider world as well”.

“The extraordinary thing about this movement is that it does not simply do evil – it boasts of evil. It’s proud of evil. It advertises its evil in a way almost never before seen at any time in the modern world,” he said.

“You’ve got to go back to the middle ages to see this arrogance in atrocity which we have seen from the [Isis] movement in recent months. So along with our allies and partners Australia will do what it can to respond to this developing situation.”

Abbott has previously ruled out the possibility of sending on-the-ground combat forces to Iraq.

The prime minister was asked during an ABC interview on Tuesday whether he had told the US he was disposed to sending war planes if he were asked.

“I’m not going to get into this who said what to whom stuff because our discussions with the Americans are as they should be – confidential,” he replied.

The defence minister, David Johnston, said last week that Australia’s Super Hornet strike aircraft were “incredibly capable” and “an obvious first port of call were we to consider it necessary to participate with our friends and our ally”. The ADF was “at a high state of readiness”, Johnston said at the time.

The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, said on Wednesday Australia had contingency plans to allow the removal of diplomatic staff from the embassy in Baghdad if the situation in the Iraqi capital deteriorated.

The Pentagon announced the US would increase the number of its military personnel on the ground in Baghdad by 350 to provide security at its embassy and support facilities.

The Greens called on Abbott to explain his long-term plan for Iraq, including what steps he was taking to ensure the new Iraqi government was inclusive and eased sectarian tensions.

The Labor opposition, seeking to minimise differences between it and the Coalition on national security matters, has pledged its support for the government’s decisions on Iraq, although it renewed its criticism of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, said Australia’s responsibility to the people of Iraq was to ensure any action left the place better, not worse.

“There is a very clear objective, and that’s to prevent genocide and mass atrocity crimes, particularly in northern Iraq,” Plibersek told the ABC on Wednesday.

“There is very substantial evidence of many lives lost already. The UN Human Rights Council has authorised an investigation into these existing mass atrocity crimes that [are] already said to have occurred. We know that many people have lost their lives, others have been sold into slavery, women and children. This is a terrible campaign from [Isis], and the effort is completely engaged in preventing further mass atrocity crimes.”

The US president, Barack Obama, said last week the US was yet to draw up a strategy to tackle the threat posed by Isis in the Middle East.

But Brett McGurk, the US deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran, told CNN on Tuesday the US was “developing a broad regional coalition, a broad international coalition, working to get a new Iraqi government stood up, working to get our plans in place”.

“We are over the skies of Iraq, we are actively watching what Isis is doing, and we are taking targets as they become available, within the mission that the president thus far has authorised, and we are building now a broader campaign plan that we’ll develop over the days and weeks ahead,” he said.