The defence minister is refusing to comment on the deployment of special forces to the Middle East but has again insisted Australia will not put “boots on the ground” in Iran as part of any US-led military operation.
Sources have told The Nightly that elite Australian troops have been constantly rotating out of the Al Minhad air base in the United Arab Emirates for “some time”, and well before the latest conflict in the region began in late February.
A Daily Telegraph report stating that a “contingent of about 90 Special Air Services members was sent to region two weeks ago” has put renewed focus on Australia’s military presence in the area as the Iran war continues.
“We don’t comment on the movements of our special forces but let me be absolutely clear: we are not having boots on the ground in Iran, and we’ve made that very clear from the outset of this conflict,” Defence Minister Richard Marles said in response.
Pressed on if the SAS members were there in a “defensive” role, Mr Marles declared “we never make comments about the operations of our special forces, but I would be really clear to the Australian people, we’re not having boots on the ground in Iran.”
“This is not a conflict that we are involved in – we have responded through the provision of our E-7 Wedgetail,” an airborne early warning and control aircraft sent to the Middle East last month for “providing defensive support to the United Arab Emirates”.
“The government’s posture is to be providing support to the countries of the Gulf. We’ve responded to a request from the United Arab Emirates, our E-7 Wedgetail is in the region providing that support, but we are not having boots on the ground in Iran.”
Military insiders say it’s crucial for Australian special forces to be in the region in case the RAAF aircraft was shot down and have pointed to the destruction of a US Air Force E-3 Sentry aircraft hit in an Iranian strike on a Saudi Arabia air base last week.
One figure connected to Australia’s special forces community said SAS troops had been operating out of the UAE for “some time” and had scaled up their presence since Operation Beech was established in 2023 to support DFAT-led evacuations in the area.
“I think it would be naive to think that 4 Squadron (an intelligence focussed SAS unit) isn’t heavily committed for surveillance, reconnaissance and liaison purposes across CENTCOM (US Central Command).
“A Commando Troop, logistics personnel and liaisons would make up 90 pretty easily, and a number would also be regular solders assigned to DFAT for Non-combatant Evacuation Operation purposes,” the military source told The Nightly.
Greens Senator David Shoebridge has criticised the deployment of special forces to the Middle East and questioned why the Prime Minister did not disclose their presence during his national address on Wednesday evening.
“The Albanese Labor Government has sent SAS troops into the Middle East while this awful and illegal US and Israeli War on Iran expands,” he wrote online in response to the Daily Telegraph’s report.