Australia will help deliver weapons to Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq in an attempt to counter the threat posed by Islamic State militants, while participating in further humanitarian air drops.
Tony Abbott said the US government had requested that Australia help to transport stores of military equipment, including arms and munitions, as part of a multinational effort.
“Royal Australian Air Force C-130 Hercules and C-17 Globemaster aircraft will join aircraft from other nations including Canada, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and the United States to conduct this important task,” the prime minister said in a statement on Sunday.
“Australia’s contribution will continue to be coordinated with the government of Iraq and regional countries.”
The Labor opposition signalled its support for the decision, saying the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were the only effective barrier to Isis slaughtering civilian populations while advancing through northern Iraq.
This town was “home to thousands of Shia Turkomans who have been cut off from receiving food, water, and medical supplies for two months” by Isis, the statement said.
The Pentagon said US aircraft had also conducted airstrikes against nearby Isis terrorists.
Last week the US defence secretary, Chuck Hagel,
said seven nations – Albania, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Italy, France and the UK – had joined the US and the Iraqi government in committing “to helping provide Kurdish forces urgently needed arms and equipment”.
Heval Syan, a representative of the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) in Iraq, recently urged Australia to provide support to the Peshmerga with humanitarian assistance and military support.
“Deliveries of the military equipment and ammunitions are urgently needed for Peshmerga to achieve gains on the ground,” Syan said in a letter to the foreign minister, Julie Bishop.
“It is now time for the international community especially the Australian government to step forward urgently and provide the KRG with humanitarian assistance and military support, particularly equipment and air support.”
The Australian government is not providing weapons itself but will be delivering the equipment supplied by other nations.
Abbott said the decision, made by cabinet’s national security committee, followed Australia’s involvement in the successful international humanitarian relief effort that dropped supplies to the thousands of people stranded on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq.
“The situation in Iraq represents a humanitarian catastrophe,” he said.
Abbott said Australia remained “in close contact with the US and other international partners” and would “continue to work to alleviate the humanitarian situation in Iraq” and address the security threat posed by Isis. This is an indication that Australia remains open to a potential US request to join an aerial campaign, such as the use of Super Hornets in air strikes.
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said he supported the government’s decision “to assist resupply beleaguered Kurdish fighters who are the frontline against the Islamic State terrorist organisation”.
Shorten said officials had briefed Labor on the matter. Asked about the risk of the arms falling into the wrong hands, he said: “This is always a question; I believe though that the global coalition working on this matter is conscious that on the balance of risks the greater risk is to allow [Isis] to succeed in their war in northern Iraq.”
The opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, said the Peshmerga and others had been “the only effective fighting force” stopping Isis.
Labor had supported Australia’s humanitarian effort to protect civilian populations and saw the delivery of arms to the anti-Isis fighters as a “logical next step”.
“Where you have an effective or reasonably effective fighting force on the ground being the only thing standing between [Isis] and civilian populations that are at risk of genocide or ethnic cleansing, then there is an international responsibility to assist those people to hold back [Isis],” she told the ABC on Sunday.
Plibersek, who strongly opposed the 2003 Iraq war, drew a contrast between the circumstances then and the process now.
She said the 2003 invasion was “a disaster” and people would remember how “enthusiastic” the Bush, Blair and Howard administrations were.
“In 2003, the US and Australia and a few others went into Iraq without international support and without the support of the majority of the Iraqi population,” Plibersek said.
“The difference here is you’ve got the newly forming Iraqi government speaking with the international community. You’ve got an imminent humanitarian disaster. We have seen already that [Isis] are prepared to commit genocide if they can. So you do have a responsibility to protect from the international community and you’ve got a US administration that are taking a much more methodical and much more internationally inclusive approach.”
Abbott has said the government was not considering putting Australian combat troops on the ground in Iraq. The Greens have renewed calls for military action to be subject to parliamentary debate and vote.
The Greens leader, Christine Milne, said Abbott needed to explain his strategy, arguing Australia should be an independent nation with an independent foreign policy.
“There is no doubt that the Islamic State is brutal, that they’re carrying out horrendous crimes against humanity, that every day what they’re doing is appalling,” Milne said on Sunday.
“But it was exactly the same as in Syria when they used chemical weapons against their own people; slaughter like this is taking place in the Congo; it happened in Rwanda; it happens around the world. The question is what is Australia’s engagement, how is it in our national interest, what is the objective of going into Iraq again? That is the question the prime minister needs to answer.
“Horrendous and barbaric crimes take place all over the world in various circumstances and have been going on in the Middle East for some time. I think it’s time the prime minister actually told us where he expects this to end and why he expects engagement with the United States in Iraq, bombing raids for example, why he thinks that is where it is going to end.”
The Iraq discussions come as the government seeks to build support for its national security crackdown, although it is yet to present to parliament a second tranche of legislation to make it easier to detain and prosecute foreign fighters.
Australia’s terrorism threat level remains at “medium”, which means a terrorist attack could occur, the same level as it has been for more than a decade.
The attorney general, George Brandis, said the threat level was “under constant review” and noted the UK government had raised its terrorism threat level from “substantial” to “severe”.
Intelligence agencies have said about 60 Australians are involved in fighting in Iraq and Syria.
