Australia is carefully weighing up a request from the United States to help confront Iran by providing security to trading ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has asked Australia to join America in providing security in the world’s most important waterway for oil shipments.
Mr Pompeo and newly appointed US Defense Secretary Mark Esper met with Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds in Sydney on Sunday.
“We hope Australia will partner with us on some of the most pressing foreign policy challenges of our time, like efforts to stabilise Syria and keep Afghanistan free of terror, and confront the Islamic Republic of Iran’s unprovoked attacks on international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” Mr Pompeo told reporters.
Senator Reynolds said the government’s decision would be based on Australia’s sovereign interests.
“We are deeply concerned by the heightened tensions in the region, and we are strongly condemning the attacks on shipping in the Gulf of Oman,” she said.
“The request that the United States has made is a very serious one and a complex one. That’s why we are currently giving this request very serious consideration.
“No decision has been made.”
Read the article in the Shepparton News (AAP newswire).