Iran responds to US attack by bombing US-run Qatari air base
IRAN ATTACKS US BASE IN QATAR
Iran has launched missiles at a US military base in Qatar in response to America’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Majed al-Ansari, the official spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said air defence systems had “successfully thwarted the attack [on the US-run Al Udeid Air Base] and intercepted the Iranian missiles”, adding “we confirm that no injuries or human casualties resulted from the attack”.
A US defense official is quoted by CNN as saying the air base had been attacked “by short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles”. The Associated Press reports Iran said its attack matched the number of bombs dropped by the US on nuclear sites at the weekend, which the newswire reckons signalled “its likely desire to deescalate”.
The BBC flags Iran’s Supreme National Security Council claims the attack in no way “presents any danger to Qatar or its people”, adding Iran “remains committed to maintaining and continuing its warm and historic relations” with Qatar.
Meanwhile, the British broadcaster also highlights that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp [IRGC], a branch of Iran’s armed forces, said in its statement that “[Iran] will not leave any attack on its territorial integrity, sovereignty, and national security unanswered under any circumstances” and its message to the White House and its allies was “clear and explicit”. A senior Iranian official also told Reuters that Iran will continue its retaliation.
The New York Times reports the Al Udeid Air Base, which serves as the forward headquarters for the US Central Command, had been considered “a prime potential target for Iranian retaliation”. Earlier on Monday, the US and UK had warned their citizens in Qatar to shelter in place as Doha closed its airspace.
A White House official told CNN the Trump administration had been anticipating a response from Tehran. “We knew they’d retaliate. They had a similar response after Soleimani,” the official said, in reference to the Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike in 2020.
The NYT also reports that three Iranian officials claimed Tehran had given Qatar advanced notice that attacks were coming. “The officials said Iran symbolically needed to strike back at the US but at the same time carry it out in a way that allowed all sides an exit ramp,” the paper says.
The Financial Times reports most personnel were evacuated from the Al Udeid base, where about 10,000 American troops are typically stationed, last week.
Writing on X, Al-Ansari said of the attack: “We consider this a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the state of Qatar, its airspace, international law, and the United Nations charter.” The statement also declared that Qatar “reserves the right to respond directly in a manner proportional to the nature and scale of this blatant aggression and in accordance with international law”.
The Associated Press reports airports across the Gulf warned of cancelled, delayed and redirected flights on Monday evening as numerous countries closed their airspace. Bahrain also sounded air raid sirens, but the all-clear was later signalled.
Responding to Iran’s attack on Monday, Saudi Arabia said it condemned the action “in the strongest terms”, calling it “a flagrant violation of international law”. French President Emmanuel Macron called on all parties to “de-escalate and return to the negotiating table”, adding “the spiral of chaos must end.”
In Washington, US President Donald Trump attended a National Security Council meeting at the White House shortly after the attack on Qatar. Later, he posted on Truth Social: “Most importantly, they’ve gotten it all out of their ‘system,’ and there will, hopefully, be no further HATE. I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured. Perhaps Iran can now proceed to Peace and Harmony in the Region, and I will enthusiastically encourage Israel to do the same.”
Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to downplay one of Trump’s endless rants on his social media platform, in which he stated: “It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!”
Leavitt said Trump was ”simply raising a question” after members of his administration — including Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — claimed the American aim was not regime change.
Throughout the day Trump posted a series of frantic messages on Truth Social, including the totally calm: “EVERYONE, KEEP OIL PRICES DOWN. I’M WATCHING! YOU’RE PLAYING RIGHT INTO THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY. DON’T DO IT!”
The Financial Times reports oil prices “tumbled” on Monday afternoon as traders saw the Iranian attack against the US base “as a sign that it is likely to avoid attacking energy infrastructure in the region”. Brent crude dropped almost 6% to $71.11 a barrel following the attacks, the paper said.
Israel continued to bombard Iran on Monday, striking sites such as Tehran’s Evin Prison and the Fordo nuclear facility, which had been hit by the American bombers at the weekend.
GOVERNMENT TOLD: DITCH YOUTUBE CARVE-OUT
What the Australian government’s position is on the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, what intelligence it had, what help it may have provided and what the state of US-Australian relations is in the aftermath dominated much of yesterday’s media coverage (see the pieces by my colleagues Bernard Keane and Charlie Lewis and The Commentariat below).
Away from the situation in the Middle East this morning, The Australian Financial Review reports the Albanese government “will backflip on exempting YouTube from its social media ban for people younger than 16”. The paper claims the decision comes after the eSafety commissioner advised the platform was the most likely place for children to view harmful content.
The Australian is a bit less emphatic, reporting instead that Julie Inman Grant had “advised” for the decision to carve out YouTube from the ban to be axed. The paper highlights the anger from the other social media platforms when then communications minister Michelle Rowland announced YouTube would be exempt.
The AFR reports Inman Grant wrote in her report: “Given the known risks of harms on YouTube, the similarity of its functionality to the other online services, and without sufficient evidence demonstrating that YouTube predominantly provides beneficial experiences for children under 16, providing a specific carve-out for YouTube appears to be inconsistent with the purpose of the act.
“Among a subset of children who had ever seen or heard potentially harmful content online, 37% reported their most recent or impactful experience with this content occurred on YouTube.”
Anonymous government sources are quoted by the newspaper as saying the changes to the previous YouTube carve-out would be made later in the year.
A spokesperson for Communications Minister Anika Wells said she was considering Inman Grant’s advice. Guardian Australia reports the advice was released by Wells’ office ahead of the eSafety commissioner’s address to the National Press Club later today.
The site says the advice also recommends “the government update its under-16s social media ban to specifically address features like stories, streaks and AI chatbots which can disproportionately pose risk to young people”.
The ban is set to come into effect in December this year.
Meanwhile, The Australian reports Defence Minister Richard Marles may beat Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to a face-to-face meeting with US President Donald Trump.
“Trump is reportedly looking to convene a meeting with representatives from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan as part of the Indo-Pacific Four — or IP4 — grouping for a discussion on the sidelines of the summit in the Netherlands,” the paper writes.
The prime minister has said he will not be attending the NATO summit in the Hague this week.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
The first test images from a powerful new telescope in Chile have captured the light from millions of galaxies and stars “on an unprecedented scale”, CNN reports.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which houses the world’s most powerful digital camera, could transform our understanding of the universe, the BBC adds.
Suggesting what the observatory is expected to be capable of, the British broadcaster declares: “It should detect killer asteroids in striking distance of Earth and map the Milky Way.
“It will also answer crucial questions about dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up most of our universe.”
CNN says the first images released represent just over 10 hours of test observations and mark the beginning of a 10-year mission.
Say What?
My goodness, it is the lamb following the lamb here. What Trump did was wrong … You are bending over to Trump already. I find it shameful. Start standing up to the man, he is a bloody sociopath.
Jacqui Lambie
The senator told the ABC what she thought of the Albanese government’s response to the US strikes on Iran. She also said the prime minister should attend the NATO summit in The Hague.
CRIKEY RECAP
What was Australia’s role in Trump’s attack on Iran? You’re not allowed to know
What was the United Kingdom’s role in Donald Trump’s military assault on Iran over the weekend? The UK wasn’t involved, but knew in advance, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said in the immediate aftermath.
What about France? After “noting with concern” the strikes, the French foreign minister said France had taken no part in the planning or execution of the bombings.
And as for another key US ally, Australia? Sorry, you can’t be told. Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong was asked repeatedly this morning if Australian signals facilities like Pine Gap were used as part of the attack. Her reply both times was that “we don’t comment on intelligence matters”, but that “the US has made clear, publicly, these were unilateral strikes”.
Shameless cheerleaders for the Iraq War roll out the same arguments 20 years later on Iran
“Australia, as the closest US ally in this region, should be unequivocal in backing Trump’s courageous action. We should be showing support for our closest friend on the world stage and acknowledging the long-term benefits to the world of eliminating Iran’s nuclear capacity,” reads today’s editorial in The Australian.
We’re sure this call for “unequivocal support” for the US’ attack on Iran will age as well as the national broadsheet’s support for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 — not to mention its editorial in April of the same year, particularly stomach-churning given what followed, that celebrated the fall of Baghdad and castigated opponents of the war.
AI is zombifying our brains. The iNaturalist saga shows we can fight back
If you don’t already know about the zombie ant fungus, let me enlighten you. The iNaturalist page for this species of insect-pathogenic fungus explains that it worms its way into the brain of a specific type of ant and alters its behaviour. The ants then leave their nest, seek out a warm, humid place suitable for fungal growth, and “they then use their mandibles to attach themselves to a major vein on the underside of a leaf, where the host remains after its eventual death”.
I reckon it’s a suitably compelling analogy for how generative machine learning software is propagating itself by hijacking the minds of otherwise rational individuals, sacrificing them so it can spread itself into the next host.
Educators, academic institutions, media outlets, governments and government workers, lawyers, studio executives — it’s not hard to find examples of each of these volunteering their brains to help the slop machine propagate even further.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Zelenskyy meets king, British PM as further Russian strikes kill 10 in Kyiv (ABC)
NSW upper house president seeks advice from Bret Walker over possible political staffer arrests (Guardian Australia)
Mia Freedman’s Mamamia and News Corp sued over cannabis ads (The Sydney Morning Herald)
New York to build one of first US nuclear power plants in generation (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
Tesla robotaxi ‘low-key’ launch in Texas (BBC)
British & Irish Lions have landed in Australia and a Wallabies call has already sparked simmering tension (The Australian) ($)
THE COMMENTARIAT
As the US chooses destruction over diplomacy in Iran, Australia has to decide between principle and prostration — Allan Behm (Guardian Australia): Trump’s decision to attack Iran takes the Middle East into a dangerously dystopian universe of prolonged chaos and pain. Casuistry excepted, there is not a shred of legal argument for America’s actions. That reflects a fundamental dynamic that underpins the maelstrom that is now the Middle East: it is a battle of wills conducted by pig-headed narcissists obsessed by power and their own personal political survival at the expense of their nations’ security.
So the seeds have been sown for self-perpetuating instability and irreconcilable difference in the Middle East until the inevitable conflagration forces whoever might survive to the negotiating table to establish new constitutional arrangements. Countless people will die in the interim.
As for Australia, Wong said the US had not requested our assistance in future military operations, and that she “wouldn’t speculate”. But eventually Australia will have to decide between principle and prostration. An erratic and temperamental Trump is once again poised to take the US into a war that will end in failure. It is a pity that the Albanese government is not yet ready to assert and advocate the moral dimension of the “good international citizenship” that Labor governments love to talk about.
Albanese doesn’t want a bar of Middle East conflict, but that comes at a cost — James Massola (The Sydney Morning Herald): Howard or Abbott would have been out early, already briefed and proclaiming that Australia stands shoulder to shoulder with the US.
Again, this is not to criticise the current government’s response. For every Australian who wants us to be in lock-step with the United States on every decision, without hesitation, there is another who loathes our close alliance with the United States and longs for a more independent Australian foreign policy.
Like a Rorschach test, some Australians will be pleased the government didn’t immediately back the actions of the US government; others will be alarmed and see evidence of a somewhat frayed alliance. Whatever your view, Labor’s approach to the latest round of conflict in the Middle East has marked a different emphasis and intent in Australia’s strategy.
