Anthony Albanese denies Donald Trump's claims Australia not doing enough in war

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has rejected claims by US President Donald Trump that Australia refused a request for military help in his war with Iran.

President Trump overnight told journalists that Australia “should get involved” and that he was “a little bit surprised that they said ‘no’ because we always say yes to them” in a conflict.

Mr Trump had worse things to say about NATO countries, calling them COWARDS in one of his typically bombastic Truth Social posts.

Mr Albanese said he was unaware of any such request from the US.

“The truth is that we have said yes,” he said on Saturday.

“Yes to the request of the UAE for the E7 Wedgetail aircraft, which is operating there with our personnel. In addition, we sent AMRAAMs (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles) that are making a difference intercepting drones and missiles aimed at the UAE.

“We continue to provide the support we have been asked to provide.”

Asked if Australia would provide further support if requested by our AUKUS partner, Mr Albanese said: “Well, he hasn’t asked, so I’m not going to go through hypotheticals. We have done what we have asked been asked to do”.

“We’ve signed up to the statement that’s been issued, has been coordinated by the United Kingdom that speaks about the work that we’re doing to ensure the Strait of Hormuz are open,” he added.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles separately re-iterated that Australia has not received a request from the US in respect of the Strait of Hormuz, which has been closed by Iran in a move that is crippling global oil supplies and wreaking economic havoc.

“What we do have is a UK-led statement in respect of the Strait of Hormuz, which we have signed,” he said.

Mr Marles, speaking at a major Navy event in Sydney, said he understood the anxiety felt by families of defence personnel worried that they could be deployed to do more in the Persian Gulf.

“I can very much understand the sentiment which is being felt by the Australian people and by mums and dads out there, and husbands and wives who may have loved ones in the Australian Defence Force,” he said.

“Firstly what they should know is that we do not take any decisions about the deployment of any our serving personnel lightly. And we do so carefully and prudently in accordance with Australia’s national interests. I actually think when you look at the decision making process around the deployment of the E7, you get a pretty good example of that.

“We made it clear that we are not part of the action that is being undertaken by the United States and by Israel.

“There’s a community of 24,000 Australians who are living in the United Arab Emirates. We have an operational headquarters, in the Al Minhad Air Base. And we received a request from a close friend and partner in the United Arab Emirates for support and in that context, very carefully, we worked through the process of making a decision to deploy 85 personnel as part of this E7 contingent to provide for the defence of the Gulf countries including of course the UAE.

“None of these decisions we take lightly and we do so very cognisant of the weight that comes with deploying the men and women of the Australian Defence Force.”

A positive relationship with the Trump administration remains critical for the Labor Government which is committed to the AUKUS partnership, which will provide Australia with a conventionally armed, nuclear powered submarine capability.

Australia spending $20 billion to ensure WA’s HMAS Stirling and the Henderson precinct are ready to become key components of AUKUS by maintaining nuclear submarines and being part of rotations through Garden Island.

Mr Albanese called upon the “Iranian regime to stop its attacks” on its Gulf neighbours.

“It’s difficult to see what their strategy is, except for alienating the Iranian regime from all of its neighbours,” he said.

But military strategists have said Tehran’s asymmetric warfare made sense for the regime.

Despite weeks of US-Israeli bombardment, the regime isn’t close to falling, and is instead coalescing around the remaining hardliners, according to western intelligence assessments.

In more mixed messaging from the White House, President Trump on Friday said the US was considering “winding down” operations against Iran while sending an additional 2500 Marines to the Middle East.

His latest comments were received by American media as signalling shift to more modest goals from the conflict rather than regime change, which is longed for by many Iranians, who were hoping the country would finally be liberated.

Mr Trump again said the US was “getting very close to meeting our objectives” and left the issue of reopening the Strait of Hormuz to other countries that use it, claiming the United States did not.

In one overnight Truth Social post he vented: “Without the U.S.A., NATO IS A PAPER TIGER!”

“COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER!”

“Now that fight is Militarily WON, with very little danger for them, they complain about the high oil prices they are forced to pay, but don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz, a simple military maneuvre [SIC] that is the single reason for the high oil prices.”

The UK has given permission for the US to use military bases in Britain to carry out strikes on Iranian missile sites that are attacking ships in the strait.

Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country “remains a loyal friend and reliable partner to Tehran during this difficult time,” according to a Kremlin statement.

On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran was ready to let Japanese vessels pass through the strait.

He said Iran had not closed the strait, but had imposed restrictions on vessels belonging to countries involved in attacks against Iran.

Japan imports around 90 per cent of oil shipments via the strait.

Soaring energy prices causing Mr Trump political damage at home have prompted the US Treasury to take the extraordinary step of unsanctioning some Iranian oil.