Sally Sara, Host: In developing news this morning, Iran and Israel have announced a pause in their military operations. The latest round of strikes began on Sunday evening when Iran launched missiles at northern Israel in retaliation for Israel's expanded military operations in Lebanon. Israel swiftly retaliated, triggering a fresh round of tensions between the two adversaries. It comes as Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles have been meeting their German counterparts in Berlin as governments around the world urge a de-escalation in the Middle East. Matt Thistlethwaite is the Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and joins me, Minister, welcome back to Breakfast.
Matt Thistlethwaite, Assistant Minister Foreign Affairs and Trade: Good morning, Sally. Thanks for having me on.
Sara: Have these meetings in Berlin been productive?
Assistant Minister: Yes, they certainly have. This is the third security policy consultation between Australia and Germany and the Ministers put out a joint statement reiterating our support for Ukraine and resisting Russia's illegal and immoral invasion and importance of the role that NATO is playing. Australia is of course the largest non-NATO contributor to the resistance effort there, but importantly also some words around the influence that other nations can have on Russia, particularly calling on China to play a positive role in trying to get Russia to negotiate an outcome. And of course the ongoing situation in the Middle East and the importance of a diplomatic solution there as well. So, all in all, a very productive meeting.
Sara: Although Iran has announced the country will end its current attacks on Israel, how concerned is the government about Iran and Israel trading missiles yesterday?
Assistant Minister: Yeah, it is quite concerning. Thankfully they've agreed to continue the ceasefire, which is important, but we know it's a very fragile ceasefire and I think that Australians are becoming increasingly frustrated with the stop-start nature of this conflict and the fact that the Strait of Hormuz still largely remains closed to shipping and that's having a dramatic impact on Australia's domestic markets, particularly the fuel market. And it's now starting to flow through to household goods like food and groceries and obviously that's had an effect on inflation. So, we want to see this conflict brought to an end as quickly as possible. We want this temporary ceasefire to become a permanent ceasefire and the Strait of Hormuz to open fully once gain to shipping and the international energy markets to return to normal.
Sara: What conversations has the Federal Government had with the Israeli ambassador to Australia to call for de-escalation?
Assistant Minister: Well, we've had several conversations with the Israeli ambassador over the course of the last month, principally around the disgusting treatment of Australian detainees by the Israel Minister, Ben-Gvir, and calling for those detainees to be released. Thankfully, they were. Now, there's some terrible allegations that have been made and we're calling on Israel to thoroughly investigate those allegations as quickly as possible. But we've had a continual dialogue regarding the importance of Israel recognising Lebanon's territorial integrity and ceasing the incursions that the Israeli Defence Forces had into southern Lebanon. And more broadly, calling on Israel to abide by the ceasefire conditions and to negotiate a lasting outcome. The only way we're going to get peace in the Middle East is if there's a lasting two state solution that's put in place in accordance with the policy that our government's adopted, that's reinforced through the United Nations. And until we can say that the parties are willing to look to negotiate something like that, it makes it very difficult for this conflict to come to an end.
Sara: Italy says it's investigating Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over the alleged mistreatment of flotilla activists last month, which Israel denies, there were Australians among those detained and some of them have alleged mistreatment as well. Will Australia follow Italy's lead with similar action?
Assistant Minister: Well, everyone saw the footage and everyone can see that Minister Ben-Gvir acted inappropriately and that that behaviour is certainly not acceptable. And then the allegations have been made. We believe those Australians, that we take those allegations very seriously and that's why we've called on the ambassador, or through the ambassador, on the Israeli government to take action. Ultimately, Sally, this is going to be something that will to be investigated by the Israeli authorities. It occurred whilst they had Australians detained on their territory and they're going to need to make an investigation now. We'll consider what other nations are doing internationally in our diplomatic efforts. But again, at the end of the day, Israel needs to take some action here.
Sara: Matt Thistlethwaite, thank you very much for joining me.
Assistant Minister: Thanks, Sally.