US-Iran war updates: Under attack UAE closes airspace, Marles rules out fuel rationing

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has been criticised for posting photos on social media of members of an Iranian women’s soccer team who had sought asylum, several of whom later changed their minds.

Photos of the players and the Labor frontbencher were widely-shared after Mr Burke told the players they were “welcome to stay in Australia, to be safe” amid the Middle East war.

Liberal Senator David Sharma on Tuesday publicly condemned Mr Burke’s handling of the situation.

“Was posting these pictures really a good idea? Several of the players, who initially claimed asylum, changed their mind, seemingly after regime pressure, channelled either directly or through their family in Iran,” Senator Sharma said.

“These pictures would not have helped.”

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Air traffic in the United Arab Emirates has returned to normal after temporary precautionary ⁠measures were lifted, state news agency WAM reported on Tuesday, citing the country’s General Civil Aviation Authority.

Earlier, the authority ‌announced ⁠a temporary closure of the country’s airspace amid rapidly evolving regional ⁠security developments, after the defence ministry said it ⁠was responding to incoming missile and ⁠drone threats from Iran.

- Reuters

Benchmark Brent crude prices have jumped 26 per cent since the start of the conflict, from around $US80 a barrel to $US101 a barrel, and global gas, diesel, and coal prices have surged too.

The winners in the S&P/ASX 200 Index from the war include oil and gas giants Woodside and Santos. Both have jumped more than 15 per cent over the past month. Coal miner Yancoal has risen 27 per cent and New Hope Corp 10 per cent.

But the potential for windfall profits has angered the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), which is demanding tax law changes.

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A strike on a house in Baghdad has killed four people, two Iraqi security officials have told AFP, with initial reports suggesting that two of those killed are Iranian advisors.

Another source from an Iran-backed faction confirmed that four people were killed in the strike on a house hosting Iranian advisors in al-Jadiriyah neighbourhood.

It comes after a fresh drone and rocket attack targeted the US embassy early Tuesday

An AFP journalist reported seeing black smoke rising after an explosion in the embassy complex, as well as air defences intercepting another drone.

The security official said that “three drones and four rockets attacked the embassy, with at least one drone crashing inside it.”

A drone strike has sparked a fire in the United Arab Emirates’ city of Fujairah.

The attack on the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone, which has the Middle East’s largest storage capacity for refined oil products, has reportedly sparked an “advanced fire”.

“Civil defense teams in the emirate immediately began responding to the incident and are continuing efforts to bring it under control,” the UAE’s Fujairah government media office said.

Despite more than two weeks of relentless airstrikes, US intelligence assessments say, Iran’s regime likely will remain in place for now, weakened but more hard-line, with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps security forces exerting greater control.

Western officials and analysts who study Iran said they see little near-term prospect of a “regime change” end to the 47-year-old Islamic republic or the rise of a more democratic government.

The latter is a goal cited by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sometimes by President Donald Trump, who has said he’ll know the war is over “when I feel it in my bones.”

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The United Arab Emirates has shutdown the country’s airspace as it responds a new wave of drone and missile attacks.

The shutdown was “an exceptional precautionary measure”, state media have reported.

It comes just hours after the country lifted a previous airspace closure and Emirates airline resumed a reduced flight schedule.

That closure had been prompted after a fuel tank fire caused by a drone attack at Dubai airport.

Donald Trump has once again undermined NATO, conflating the defensive alliance with his expectation that Allies should write the US a blank cheque for its military ‘excursion’ in Iran, Latika M Bourke writes.

Despite his self-professed triumphs in Iran, Mr Trump has resorted to his well-used trope that NATO allies would not defend America if attacked after they were reluctant to send help to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

But this was a US war of choice and his expectation that the Allies would be obliged to help is an extension of America First thinking — the US uses its military and economic superpower status to protect and secure common goods, such as shipping routes, that benefit more countries than just the US.

His destructionist methods may have worked to get the Europeans to lift their defence spending, but it has had costs.

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Opposition Leader Angus Taylor says if the Government is contemplating fuel rationing – which it has so far ruled out – that would be akin to admitting failure.

“You shouldn’t need rationing if you’re actually on top of the issues. Rationing is something you do when you fail,” he told reporters in Walla Walla, where he is on the campaign trail for the by-election in Sussan Ley’s former seat of Farrer.

“This government is now signing up for failure, because they just haven’t got it right.”

Mr Taylor said the most important thing right now was for the Government to “do what is necessary” to get fuel stocks to regional areas.

One Nation MP and former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce said at the weekend that Australia should “100 per cent” be rationing fuel.

Defence Minister Richard Marles says Australia will consider any request from the United States for military assistance in the Strait of Hormuz but insists no direct approach has been made from Washington yet.

On Monday, the Albanese government confirmed it would not be sending a warship to the region after President Donald Trump urged allies to help the United States protect the crucial shipping passage from Iranian strikes.

Overnight President Trump has increased pressure on allies — including the United Kingdom — to help secure the Strait of Hormuz and restore the flow of global oil shipments.

Mr Marles has told Sky News at this point Australia has not received a request from the Trump administration but added: “we’ll see what transpires over the coming days”.

“It depends on the nature of the ask, and I don’t want to speculate on that. I mean, when requests are made, we all understand what each other’s capabilities are, and this tends to be a situation where people will go into, you know, what may help,” he added.

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