G7 leaders scramble for stance on Israel-Iran conflict
G7 ON ISRAEL VS IRAN
As the deadly conflict between Israel and Iran continues for a fourth day, world leaders gathered in Canada for the G7 summit are trying to put together a statement calling for de-escalation.
On Monday, local time, Israel said it had attacked Iran’s state television station in Tehran and claimed to have destroyed about a third of the country’s missile launchers, CNN reports. The BBC and others carry footage of the attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network, which was mid-broadcast when the strike occurred.
The Israel Defense Forces claimed in a statement: “The building was used by the Iranian Armed Forces under the guise of civilian activity, covering up the military use of the centre’s infrastructure and assets. The strike directly harmed the military capabilities of the Iranian Armed Forces.” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the attack had happened “after a large-scale evacuation of the surrounding area”, adding: “We will hit the Iranian dictator everywhere.”
CNN adds Iran struck an oil refinery in Israel and damaged part of the country’s power grid overnight. The American broadcaster says 224 people have been killed in Iran since the attacks began on Friday, with 24 people killed in Israel.
The ABC reports missile alerts have sounded in northern Israel on Monday evening as Iran pledged to “pummel” the country until the attacks stopped. The broadcaster also highlights the huge queues of traffic trying to leave Tehran.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier in the day that Tehran “has been urgently signalling that it seeks an end to hostilities and resumption of talks over its nuclear programs”. The paper reports: “In the midst of a ferocious Israeli air campaign, Tehran has told Arab officials it would be open to returning to the negotiating table as long as the US doesn’t join the attack, the officials said. Iran also passed messages to Israel saying it is in the interest of both sides to keep the violence contained.”
However, the report goes on to say: “Israeli leaders have little incentive to halt their assault before doing more to destroy Iran’s nuclear sites and further weaken the theocratic government’s hold on power.”
Asked if he had heard of the reported move by Iran, US President Donald Trump told reporters in Alberta: “They want to talk,” adding: “If Iran wants to negotiate, now is the time.”
The Guardian reports European leaders at the G7 summit are trying to engineer an Iranian return to the negotiating table, while world leaders are also preparing a joint statement on the Israel-Iran conflict.
CNN says the statement calls for de-escalation, as well as claiming Israel has a right to defend itself and that Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon. However, Trump reportedly does not intend to sign the statement.
Yesterday it was reported the US president had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In the last few hours, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to rule it out, America’s ABC News reports.
When asked about the report that Trump had rejected the plan due to concerns it would escalate the conflict, Netanyahu declared: “It’s not going to escalate the conflict, it’s going to end the conflict.”
The Israeli PM said that Israel was “doing what we need to do” when asked if it was indeed planning on targeting Iran’s supreme leader. “The ‘forever war’ is what Iran wants, and they’re bringing us to the brink of nuclear war. In fact, what Israel is doing is preventing this, bringing an end to this aggression, and we can only do so by standing up to the forces of evil,” he added.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday that his country does not want to “expand the circle of war”, but it will respond “in proportion” to any attack, CNN reports.
The ABC highlights the US State Department has updated its travel advice for Israel and is now urging people not to travel to the country. On Sunday, Australian citizens were also advised not to travel to Israel.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is urging Australians in Israel or Iran to register with them as the security situation deteriorates,” the broadcaster states. The Australian Financial Review points out Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has said 300 Australians in Israel and 350 in Iran have registered to signal their interest in fleeing the war zones.
In Gaza, local authorities have said at least 37 Palestinians have been killed in shootings near food distribution centres run by private US contractors guarded by Israeli troops, The Guardian reports.
The newspaper says Monday’s death toll is the highest in “the near-daily shootings” since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operations three weeks ago. The Israel Defense Forces told the BBC that it was examining the reports.
ALBO PREPARES FOR HIS BIG MOMENT
As has been hyped for days (or should that be weeks, or even months?) Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is getting his moment with US President Donald Trump in Canada on Tuesday, local time.
The Australian reports Albanese will get “at least 20 minutes” with Trump when they chat. The paper reckons the PM will use AUKUS “and Australia’s expanding role in the South Pacific” to reassure the Trump administration that the Albanese government “is committed to countering Chinese military aggression in the Indo-Pacific”.
The broadsheet says it understands Albanese is preparing to green-light American access to Australia’s critical minerals as well as increasing defence investment “to allow US naval ships to dock and be maintained at domestic ports”.
The Nine papers have their take on the briefing, stating Albanese “will stare down” the Trump administration’s demands on defence spending, but will apparently “reassure the president the country is a trustworthy partner in the strategic contest with China”.
The report calls the meeting “among the most important of his three decades in politics”, with even Coalition leader Sussan Ley posting on X the other day: “It’s in the interest of every Australian this meeting is a success and we want the prime minister to do well.”
Tariff reprieves and an AUKUS commitment are obviously what Albanese would very much like to leave Canada with — but as some have pointed out, the US president has quite a lot on his plate at the moment, so questions remain over the reality of Trump agreeing to do anything this week.
Guardian Australia also cites officials as describing the Albanese-Trump talks as “introductory and likely uncontroversial”, suggesting a rather lot of expectation management after weeks of build-up.
News.com.au highlights that the next 48 hours are filled with meetings for the Australian prime minister. Albanese is also set to meet with new South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Tuesday, local time. Then on Wednesday, he is scheduled to meet with the leaders of France, Germany, Japan and the UK.
Albanese is also due to meet with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa. The Australian Financial Review reports that during the meeting with the European leaders, Albanese will “greenlight negotiations for a defence and security agreement”.
Albanese met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday (see Say What?) and the AFR reckons the PM was “encouraging” of Carney’s interest in becoming part of AUKUS Pillar II.
Back home, Guardian Australia reports the fate of the NSW Liberal Party will be decided at a meeting today. The Nine papers claim the federal Liberal Party “is preparing to dump the two octogenarian Victorians appointed to oversee the troubled NSW division, a fortnight after ex-Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale questioned whether the prevalence of assertive women required protecting men”.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
After four decades of tuning pianos at the Sydney Opera House, Terry Harper is calling time on his career.
The ABC reports Terry took on the job after his father, Ron — who was also a piano-tuner — retired in 1986, and he’s been working on the opera house’s pianos ever since.
Despite all that work on the instruments, Terry, surprisingly, can’t really play.
“You don’t need to be able to play the piano to be a piano tuner,” he said. “I tried to learn piano as a 10-year-old. I think I lasted about a year and a half.”
As the broadcaster points out, Terry has played thousands of pianos during his career, but mostly just one key at a time.
Despite retiring, Terry reckons he’ll always keep an ear out for an out-of-tune piano. “Whenever I’m listening to a piano, I’m listening to the out-of-tuneness or whether it’s in tune,” he said. “It’s something you can’t get away from.”
Say What?
We do have so much in common, we share a vast continent.
Anthony Albanese
The Australian prime minister was talking to the Canadian prime minister at the G7 summit. Mark Carney responded to Albanese’s misspeak by joking: “You get your own continent.”
CRIKEY RECAP
The regime change the West needs is the end of Netanyahu
That double standard is certainly obvious in the Australian media, which readily carries reports from worried journalists and commentators hunkered down in Israeli shelters when Iran responds to Israel’s aggression (not to mention the stories of Israeli ingenuity and audacity in carrying out the attacks), but treats hundreds of Iranian deaths from Israeli attacks as a passing remark. As with Gaza, Israelis always have faces, names, humanity; their deaths and pain and fear are always a tragedy; Muslims are a faceless other, reduced to, at best, nameless bloodied puppets amid bombed ruins.
Like Trump’s unmasking of how power works in the United States, and its foreign policy of economic imperialism, Netanyahu has shone a spotlight on those double standards of the West. His actions have challenged the West to live up to its rhetoric of how all lives are equal, and it has spectacularly failed.
Only the removal of Netanyahu and his government will provide the basis for any sort of return to stability in the region and an end to the extermination of Palestinians. Until then, Palestinians, and Muslims across the world, will continue to be given a clear lesson in what the West is really like beneath its rhetoric.
Tim Wilson’s LinkedIn reveals him as the Liberals’ spiritual leader in waiting
Many people on LinkedIn shamelessly brag about their professional achievements. But shadow minister for small business, industrial relations and employment Tim Wilson’s profile is hilariously boastful, even by LinkedIn standards.
The federal member for Goldstein’s bio describes him as “one of the most ‘eminent political strategists of their political generation’” (it is unclear who he is quoting). His “experience” section also informs us that he “defied political gravity, made three Australian electoral milestones and retook Goldstein against an electoral tsunami”.
‘Concerning’: Lessons from robodebt scandal found lacking across defence, home affairs
A major academic study into the Australian Public Service’s response to the robodebt royal commission’s recommendations has found that the two biggest agencies in the Commonwealth simply ghosted their staff on the issue.
In a landmark paper published by the Journal of European Public Policy, Australian National University researchers Daniel Casey and Dr Maria Maley have found that Defence and Home Affairs didn’t offer their staff guidance on the wash-up of the scandal.
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I tried pre-ordering the Trump phone. The page failed and it charged my credit card the wrong amount (404)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Trump stands back as Israel tries bombing its way to a new neighbourhood — John Lyons (ABC): There are many things happening in the Middle East at the moment, but beneath them lies one single through line: Israel is attempting to reshape the political map of the region.
Israel’s real agenda is regime change in several parts of the Middle East — particularly Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. Rarely does a country admit that it wants regime change in another jurisdiction, but Israel is making its intentions clear.
And the real agenda for the US is that it wants plausible deniability for the attempt to remake the Middle East.
Poorer and rural Australians are sicker, yet they get less healthcare. It’s a broken system — Peter Breadon and Elizabeth Baldwin (Guardian Australia): When it comes to health, Australia is an unfair country.
Poorer Australians die about 7.5 years earlier than the wealthiest, and spend more years living with chronic disease. People from some communities, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, face an even higher risk of illness.
This injustice has deep, gnarled roots, from disadvantage and discrimination to poor air quality and unhealthy diets. But there’s one cause that’s more visible, and should be easier to fix: people missing out on healthcare they need.
