Israel has right to defend and respond to attacks: Richard Marles

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

******* has right to defend and respond to attacks: Richard Marles

*******’s right to defend itself includes a right to respond to ******* from Iran and its ********** proxies, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has conceded after a week of political argument over the government’s rhetoric.

The Government has consistently said ******* has a right to defend itself, but Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has been attacking Labor for also backing international calls, led by the US, for a ceasefire and de-escalation in the Middle East.

Mr Marles said on Sunday that Mr Dutton’s assertion Australia had split from the US position was a “patent lie” aimed at sowing community division.

“******* clearly has a right to defend itself and that does include a right to respond, but the manner in which it defends itself obviously matters,” Mr Marles told ABC’s Insiders.

“******* was attacked on October 7. Hezbollah had a whole lot of choices, but it chose in the aftermath of October 7 to also ******* ******* along with ******. Iran has been attacking *******.

“******* has a right to defend itself in the face of all of that.”

Leaders of the G7 countries – the US, ***, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the EU – issued a ****** statement on Friday expressing deep concern over the deteriorating situation in the Middle East and called on all players, including ******* and Iran, to act with restraint.

Shadow Home Affairs minister James Paterson again on Sunday accused the Government of abandoning Australia’s ally ******* to further domestic political interests.

“We’ve abandoned ******* at the UN. We started calling for a ********** establishment of a ************ state before any peace negotiations or agreement between ******* and Palestinians. That is in violation of our long-standing bipartisan policy when it comes to *******,” he told Sky News

“The only reason why you would abandon all those things is if you’re worried about the Greens, if you’re worried about the politics of southwest Sydney and you’re worried about the political implications for Labor.”

Mr Marles again urged Australians in Lebanon, where ******* is striking in a bid to degrade and rout out Hezbollah, to take seats on evacuation flights out of the country.

More than 400 people were taken to Cyprus on Saturday, but the flights were not at full capacity.

The Government has organised another two flights today with a further 500 seats, and Qantas and Qatar Airways are helping people return from Cyprus to Australia.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#******* #defend #respond #attacks #Richard #Marles

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up