Hundreds of Australians are due to leave under-siege Lebanon overnight to flee a conflict that has resulted in Australian officials reprimanding the Iranian ambassador for praising Hezbollah.
Iran’s top diplomat in Canberra, Ahmad Sadeghi, labelled Hezbollah’s assassinated leader Hassan Nasrallah a “blessed martyr” in a social media post last Sunday.
He also praised the Lebanese Shia group listed as a terror outfit in Australia, the US and UK and lashed out at Israel and what he labelled “the vile entity of the Zionist regime”, causing controversy and leading to opposition demands to expel him.
Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong have for months urged Australians to leave Lebanon.Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald
Australian officials met with the diplomat on Friday with the foreign affairs department’s acting secretary “reminded [Sadeghi] of his obligation to respect Australian law and to stay out of domestic affairs,” the government said in a statement. It is the second time Australia has cautioned the Iranian diplomat for using inflammatory language.
The opposition has demanded Labor expel Sadeghi and argued the flare-up was a test of Labor’s strength of resolve against Iran and its “axis of resistance”, including Hezbollah and Hamas, dedicated to Israel’s destruction.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has said it remains useful to have a communication channel with Iran even though she and other ministers consistently call out the Islamic republic’s malign influence in the Middle-East.
Albanese said on Friday: “We maintained a relationship with Iran since 1968 which is continuous. Not because we agree with the regime but because it’s in Australia’s national interest.”
The development came as the government continued to organise the evacuation of Australians from Lebanon. Overnight on Thursday, 41 Australians were on flights out of Lebanon to Cyprus. Two charter flights for up to 500 Australians will depart Beirut Airport for Cyprus on Saturday night, Australian time.
