TMV Statement on the US/Israel Attack on Iran
The expansion of Israel’s genocide on Palestinians to the current bombing campaign on Iran, carried out by the United States and Israel, is a flagrant act of aggression that once again exposes the violent impulse and militarised machine that feeds on escalation.
In southern Iran, a girls’ school in Minab was struck in the opening hours of the joint US/Israeli campaign, killing scores of children, the majority female students aged 7- 12, and injuring dozens more.
Gaza had already hollowed out the credibility of international law. The expansion into Iran extinguishes what remained. The prohibition on the use of force between states exists to prevent powerful governments from projecting violence across borders under the language of strategy or security. When that line is crossed without consequence, the framework ceases to restrain anyone.
Claims by the United States that this campaign serves the Iranian people are empty. Resources and regional dominance cannot be ignored in understanding this trajectory. The Middle East has long been shaped by strategic calculations tied to energy corridors, oil reserves, and geopolitical leverage. Iran occupies a central position in that matrix. Escalation against it is not detached from power politics. It intersects with long-standing strategic interests in controlling influence, shaping alliances, and maintaining regional supremacy. The language of protection obscures material calculation.
Anthony Albanese’s support for this devastating expansion places it within that strategic alignment. Endorsing strikes beyond Gaza signals acceptance of a regional war architecture built on force projection. One cannot preach the sanctity of international law while endorsing its violation.
This escalation sits within a long record of Western foreign policy in the Middle East marked by invasion, occupation, regime change operations, and catastrophic civilian tolls. Iraq was invaded on the basis of weapons of mass destruction that did not exist. Afghanistan endured decades of war. Syria endured horrors for generations, and Gaza is still currently subject to genocide. Millions across the region have been killed, displaced, or permanently scarred by interventions justified in the language of security and stability.
Australia is not a detached observer. It is embedded within the system that makes such military action possible, hosting the most significant U.S. intelligence facilities in the world at Pine Gap. The joint defence facility plays a central role in missile launch detection across the Middle East. Intelligence collected, processed, or relayed through Pine Gap feeds directly into U.S. military operations.
The Australian government must come to its senses. It cannot pretend distance from the consequences of what it supports. By backing, enabling, and shielding this expansion of war while shirking its obligations under international law, it shares responsibility for the human cost that follows. It has remained tethered to a foreign policy record defined by repeated devastation across the Middle East.
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