Greens say Australia should step up pressure on Israel over ‘disastrous, illegal, immoral war’ on Lebanon

Call comes on same day former prime minister Tony Abbott said Australia should send troops to fight alongside US forces in the Middle EastFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Greens want the federal government to put direct pressure on Israel to stop its deadly strikes on Lebanon, including cancelling weapons contracts to protest against the “disastrous, illegal, immoral war”.Prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, have insisted southern Lebanon should be included in the fledgling ceasefire agreement negotiated between the US and Iran in recent days.Lebanese officials say more than 1,700 people have been killed since fighting started in April. More than 300 of those were killed by Israeli bombing in the 24 hours after the announcement of a ceasefire in the Iran war on Tuesday nightGreens defence spokesperson, David Shoebridge, said tougher economic and diplomatic pressure was needed.“I welcome Australia joining so many other countries around the world in making that clear statement that Lebanon should be part of the ceasefire, and I note that the Pakistan negotiators made it clear from the outset that a ceasefire in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire,” he told ABC radio on Friday.“But Penny Wong saying she’s gravely concerned is not going to put the pressure on Israel to stop the illegal bombing, the plans to turn southern Lebanon into a new Gaza.”Shoebridge said Australia should cancel Israeli arms contracts, in order to exert maximum pressure.“Cancelling more than $1bn in Israeli arms contracts, that would not only respond to the moral situation of the appalling Israeli military attacks, it would also have the benefit of putting a very real material pressure on Israel to pull back from what is a disastrous, illegal, immoral war in Lebanon that is threatening the entire globe’s peace,” he said.The federal government is monitoring the situation in Lebanon, where thousands of Australian citizens live and visit.The Department of Foreign Affairs has warned Australians not to travel to the country since 28 February, and is advising people there not to wait until it is too late to leave, especially as commercial travel remains available.Last month, Wong announced $5m in assistance to civilians caught up in the war.The energy minister, Chris Bowen, said on Friday the ceasefire should apply across the region.“Lebanese people have as much right to their rights as anybody else in the Middle East,” he said. “There are Lebanese people who are losing their lives, Muslim and Christian together. That is not OK. Israel should honour this ceasefire in the letter and the spirit, and that includes the people of Lebanon.”Separately on Friday, former prime minister Tony Abbott called for Australia to send troops to fight alongside US forces, saying the government had let our main ally down, and “betrayed our values and our long-term national interest”.In an opinion piece in the Daily Telegraph, Abbott said Australia needed to be “strong again, as our forebears were”.“What is the point of having armed forces if they’re not to be used to support our allies in a just cause, and what could be a more just cause than the US-Israeli bid to deny Iran nuclear weapons, uphold freedom of navigation in the Hormuz Straits and – if possible – liberate Iran from a monstrous theocracy?“Once it became obvious that US action against Iran was imminent, even had we not been officially alerted, the Australian government should have made contact with the White House to offer assistance, as we did in the campaign against Islamic State, where our special forces, military trainers, command and control aircraft, aerial refuellers, and strike fighters did fine work.”The health minister, Mark Butler, dismissed Abbott’s intervention.“With the greatest of respect, I just don’t think this is a particularly serious contribution,” he said.“We’ve been asked to provide defensive support, particularly to the UAE, where there are thousands of Australian expats living. We’ve done that.“It’s the other side of the world and we want to see it end. I don’t think there’s any sense in the community that we want to see Australian defence force personnel deployed to offensive operations in the way that Tony Abbott has outlined.”