Malcolm Turnbull says report claiming Australian ministers believe US is preparing to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities is ‘speculation’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says he has “no reason” to believe US president Donald Trump is preparing to bomb Iran’s nuclear capability imminently, despite reports to the contrary.

The Australian ABC reported on Friday that senior ministers in the Turnbull government were preparing for the possibility the United States could bomb Iran’s nuclear capability, perhaps as early as next month.

The report cited a senior security source saying secretive Australian defence facilities could be used to help the Americans gather intelligence and identify targets to help their Iranian bombing mission, and that British intelligence agencies could also be used.

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But Turnbull has dismissed the report as “speculation”, saying he has no reason to believe Trump is preparing for a military confrontation.

“I saw a story today claiming that, on the ABC, and citing senior Australian government sources,” he said. “It’s speculation, it is citing anonymous sources.”

He said Trump’s attitude towards Iran was well known, but the ABC’s report had not benefited from any “consultation” with his office, nor with the office of the defence minister or the foreign affairs minister.

Hostile rhetoric between Washington and Tehran has escalated dramatically this week in a tit-for-tat between Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani.

After president Rouhani warned the US shouldn’t “play with the lion’s tail”, Trump responded with a bellicose tweet in capital letters, saying if Iran threatened the US again it would suffer severe consequences.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!

The senior Iranian military commander, Qassem Suleimani, hit back at Trump’s tweeted threat, comparing Trump to a gambler and a cabaret owner, and saying Iran would be the one to “end” any war between their two countries.

Australia’s secretive Pine Gap joint defence facility in the Northern Territory plays a crucial role helping American spy satellites.

Australia is part of the multilateral UKUSA agreement, which is a multilateral agreement to cooperate on signals intelligence between the US, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada. It is otherwise known as the “Five Eyes” agreement.

In May, Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the 2015 landmark nuclear deal, in spite of European opposition and the fact Iran has kept its obligations under the agreement, as repeatedly verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Washington wants all countries to stop buying Iranian oil by 4 November, which has sparked an angry response in Tehran, which has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world’s oil passes through in tankers.

Suleimani warned this week that “the Red Sea, which was secure, is no longer secure for the presence of American [military],” suggesting Iran may consider disrupting oil shipments through the Bab el-Mandeb Red Sea route via proxies.