On Friday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott gave a strong indication he was prepared to, saying “when they [IS] don’t respect the border [between Syria and Iraq], why should we?”
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Mr Abbott said that while there were legal issues around any involvement in Syria, Australia would “carefully consider” the Pentagon’s request and reveal its decision in a few weeks.
She confirmed the US had asked Australia to support air strikes as well as carry out intelligence surveillance, reconnaissance and air refuelling in Syria’s border areas.
A top Syrian official told Rudaw, a news agency in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, that both the Kurdish People’s Protection Units and Syrian government troops had successfully been able to push back ISIS militants from the Syrian town of Hasaka.
Australia will not rush to decide if it should be involved in air strikes in Syria against Islamic State militants.
“When it comes to fighting terror we are all in this together.but what we want to make sure of is we get the right information”, Mr Shorten said.
“The contribution of Australia (for air strikes in Syria) isn’t really a game changer one way or another”, Vice-Admiral Johnston said.
Labor MP Nick Champion says unlike the US, Australia is a signatory to the global Criminal Court, meaning any illegal action in Syria could leave Australian soldiers vulnerable to worldwide court action.
She also slammed Labor for not being as supportive as it could be on what she called a mission to defeat terrorism in the Middle East.
Labor leader Bill Shorten said he would decide on the party’s support after he was briefed on the proposal next week.
However Ms Bishop said the Government would “certainly” take its own legal advice before committing to joining the airstrikes.
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“(Tanya Plibersek) always takes another position”, she said.
