Anthony Albanese has confirmed that three Australians were on a US submarine that sank an Iranian warship, after the Labor government earlier refused to comment on reports that emerged on Thursday.
The prime minister said the Australian defence force personnel were on the submarine as part of an Aukus training program.
But he maintained that Australian forces were in compliance with international law, and said: “No Australian personnel have participated in any offensive action against Iran.”
Asked about implications for international law in the US and Israeli strikes on Iran, Albanese said Australia was “comfortable” with assessing that Tehran posed a threat on three levels.
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“We wouldn’t normally confirm such an issue, but given our NSC [national security committee of cabinet] meetings, in the public interest I can confirm that there were three Australian personnel onboard that vessel,” Albanese told Sky News Australia on Friday.
“I can confirm also, though, that no Australian personnel have participated in any offensive action against Iran.
“These are longstanding third-country arrangements that have been in place for a long period of time. And what they do is ensure that Australian defence force personnel, where they’re embedded in third countries’ defence assets, they act in accordance with Australian law, with Australian policy.”
The Australian government previously refused to disclose whether Australian sailors or officers were onboard the US attack submarine that torpedoed and sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday, killing at least 87 people.
The Greens senator David Shoebridge called the prime minister’s claim that no Australian personnel were involved in offensive action “extraordinary” and said it was inevitable that Australian personnel would be involved in US action.
“This makes Australia obviously, clearly, unambiguously, part of an illegal war, part of a war that is breaking down the norms of international law and making the world a less safe place,” he said.
“It is as sure as day follows night that Australians throughout the US military are actively involved, part of the United States and Israel’s illegal war in Iran.”
Shoebridge said Australia was a “hostage” not an ally in the relationship with the US, with the nation “dragged into this war without even a decision being made inside the cabinet room”.
Albanese said the three Australians onboard the submarine were there as part of the Aukus defence pact training program.
“It’s one of the big pluses behind the Aukus arrangements, Australian personnel getting experience across a range of assets, including being onboard nuclear-powered submarines, but also the exchange that’s occurring across the board.”
More than 50 Australian sailors and officers are serving in the US attack submarine fleet, a training regimen that is part of preparations for Australia to command its own nuclear-powered submarines under the Aukus deal.
According to the Royal Australian Navy, one in 10 crew members onboard US Navy attack submarines is Australian.
The US submarine strike on the Islamic Republic of Iran Ship Dena was the first time an enemy vessel has been sunk by a US torpedo since the second world war, the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, told a Pentagon briefing.
“An American submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. It was sunk by a torpedo, a quiet death.”
Hegseth has promised “sheer destruction” for the Iranian regime.
“America is winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy … they are toast and they know it,” he said.
The Pentagon has not identified which submarine was involved in the attack on Wednesday but defence trade press reported that it was the USS Minnesota, a Virginia-class submarine that rotated through the HMAS Stirling base in Western Australia last year.
Iran’s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, described the US attack as an “atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles from Iran’s shores”.
“Mark my words: the US will come to bitterly regret the precedent it has set.”
At least 87 Iranian sailors were killed. Thirty-two were pulled from the water by the Sri Lankan navy. Up to 180 personnel were believed onboard.
The frigate was sailing in international waters as it returned from a naval exercise organised by India in the Bay of Bengal.
A professor of international law at the Australian National University, Donald Rothwell, said while he believed the initial strikes by the US and Israel on Iran had no legal basis, there was no illegality in the US targeting the Iranian naval vessel as the two countries were now engaged in armed conflict.
“Armed conflict has commenced and the members of the Iranian navy are legitimate combatants for those purposes,” Rothwell said.
He said the presence of the three Australians on the submarine did not make Australia party to the broader conflict.
But Shoebridge said the decision to “abandon” the Iranian survivors from the warship, to be picked up later by Sri Lanka, was a contravention of the second Geneva convention “when there was no credible threat to the US nuclear submarine”.
A senior lecturer in law at Adelaide University, Juliette McIntyre, agreed with Rothwell that due to the conflict, a military vessel like the war ship is “considered to be a lawful target”, adding, “the initial targeting doesn’t appear to be any kind of blatant breach of the laws of war”.
But she said the issue of “abandoning” Iranian survivors was less clear cut.
“The second Geneva Convention does require aid to be rendered ordinarily … but because it’s a submarine there are some debates whether it is possible for a submarine to do that because they would have to surface,” she said.
“But because it was so far away from what you would call the main theatre of war, there wasn’t necessarily any real risk to the submarine surfacing and rendering aid.”
The national patron of Labor Against War and a former ALP senator, Doug Cameron, said the presence of the Australians confirmed the concerns of many rank-and-file party members that the Aukus agreement meant Australia could get “roped into” any future US conflict.
“These are grave, distressing and terrible developments, especially for a Labor government,” he said. “Labor have always sought to pursue peace and independence and we have given that away.”
