Pauline Hanson has praised Donald Trump’s handling of the Israel-Iran crisis, while claiming Anthony Albanese lacks the ‘backbone’ to achieve a similar ceasefire in the Middle East.
The One Nation founder said it was ‘fantastic’ that the US President unleashed ‘bunker buster’ bombs on Iran’s nuclear sites last weekend before taking credit for brokering a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.
When both sides violated the agreement in its early hours, Trump vented his fury, claiming in no uncertain terms that he was ‘not happy’ with both sides.
‘We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing,’ he told reporters.
Following Trump’s f-bomb intervention, the ceasefire appears to be holding – a success praised by Senator Hanson.
‘(Trump) is a man that goes and follows through,’ she told Sky News on Thursday.
‘We haven’t got that in our Prime Minister. There’s no way in the wide world would our Prime Minister have gone in. We don’t even have the military might.
‘He doesn’t have the backbone to do it so we have to rely on people like Donald Trump. And through his actions hopefully there will be peace for decades to come.’
‘I hope that will be the case for people on both sides, whether you’re Iranian or you’re from Israel.’
The Albanese government was criticised for taking 24 hours to say it supported Trump’s decision to drop bombs on Iran’s nuclear sites, sparking criticism that was not doing enough to support its largest ally.
At first a government spokesperson noted what had happened and called for ‘de-escalation, dialogue, and diplomacy’.
But after the Coalition offered its full support for the ‘proactive action’, Albanese changed tack in a testy, nine-minute press conference.
‘The world has long agreed that Iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon and we support action to prevent that – that is what this is,’ Albanese told reporters on Monday.
‘The US action was directed at specific sites central to Iran’s nuclear program. We don’t want escalation and a full-scale war. We continue to call for dialogue and for diplomacy.’
Asked if his government was briefed in advance, Albanese refused to comment, repeatedly saying: ‘This was a unilateral action taken by the United States.’
n facilities – such as the Pine Gap signals intelligence base near Alice Springs, and the Harold Holt naval communication station in ‘s north-west – often provide assistance to US military operations.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer revealed he was told of the military action in advance.
Albanese also admitted that he had had no contact with Trump since the US President left the G7 summit in Canada early last week to deal with the deepening crisis in Iran.