Three Australian personnel were on board the U.S. submarine that sank an Iranian warship, Australia’s prime minister confirmed on Friday, prompting concerns that the country’s close military cooperation with the United States could draw it into the broadening conflict in the Middle East.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia said the Australians did not participate in “any offensive action against Iran.” They were required to act in accordance with Australian law and policy despite being embedded with the U.S. military, Mr. Albanese said in an interview with Sky News.
Asked whether he was “comfortable” with the way the Iranian destroyer was sunk near Sri Lanka in terms of international law, Mr. Albanese said that was a question for the United States. Mr. Albanese was among the first U.S. allies to offer full public support of the attack on Iran.
The Australian submariners were aboard the U.S. vessel as part of the increasing cooperation and integration between the countries’ navies aimed at countering China in the region. Under a pact known as AUKUS, which also involves Britain, Australia is set to receive sensitive nuclear technology and nuclear-powered submarines from the United States in the coming years.
U.S. military officials have said that as a part of the integration, two to three Australian officers would eventually be on board many U.S. attack submarines to be trainedt.
Australia’s defense department said late last year that one in 10 of the people on U.S. nuclear-powered attack submarines is Australian.
Critics of the agreement have warned that the increasingly close ties will embroil Australia in U.S.-led conflicts, a concern that has been heightened with the actions of the second Trump administration. On Friday, David Shoebridge, a senator with the Australian Greens, said the presence of Australian personnel on the U.S. ship involved in the Iran conflict was “an inevitability of AUKUS.”
“We have been dragged into this war without even a decision being made inside the cabinet room,” Mr. Shoebridge, who has long been against the agreement, told reporters in Canberra.
Australia last year severed diplomatic ties with Iran, accusing its military of orchestrating at least two antisemitic attacks against Jewish institutions and businesses in Sydney and Melbourne.
That attack made it clear to Australians that Iran was “prepared to reach across the other side of the world to promote an attack on Australian soil to promote division here in Australia,” Mr. Albanese said in the interview with Sky News on Friday.
Victoria Kim is the Australia correspondent for The New York Times, based in Sydney, covering Australia, New Zealand and the broader Pacific region.
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