Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did not reach for diplomatic hedging when news broke that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed in a joint US-Israeli military strike on Tehran. Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, he said the Iranian Supreme Leader "was responsible for orchestrating attacks on Australian soil" and that his passing "will not be mourned." It was among the bluntest statements an Australian prime minister has made about a foreign head of state in living memory, and it carried the weight of a relationship already broken.
The strikes, reported by 9News, came as part of a major joint operation. On 28 February 2026, Israel and the United States launched a joint attack on various sites in Iran, with Israel naming the operation "Roaring Lion" and the United States calling it "Operation Epic Fury". The attack included the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Khamenei was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his Tehran compound, according to four Israeli security officials briefed on the matter. Iranian state media later confirmed he was killed while at his office, with state news agency IRIB reporting he "was martyred at his workplace in the Beit Rahbari."
For Canberra, the moment arrived with a degree of pre-existing context that few Western capitals could match. In 2024, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), at the direction of the Iranian government, organised and carried out at least two terrorist attacks within Australia. The first occurred on 20 October 2024, when arsonists firebombed Lewis Continental Kitchen, a kosher restaurant in Sydney. The second took place on 6 December 2024, when another group firebombed the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, injuring one congregation member and causing approximately $45 million in property damage. The expulsion of Iran's ambassador was the first time since World War II that Australia had expelled an ambassador. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed it had also suspended embassy operations in Tehran.
Albanese drew a direct line between those attacks and Australia's position on the strikes. Referencing the arson attacks on Jewish institutions, he said the acts were "intended to create fear, divide our society and challenge our sovereignty." He said Iran's regime had been "a destabilising force" through its ballistic missile and nuclear programme, adding that "the international community has been clear that the Iranian regime can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon." His statement stopped short of explicitly endorsing the strikes themselves, though his framing left little ambiguity about where Australia stood.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor was more direct. He described the Iranian regime as "authoritarian, antisemitic and abhorrent," and said it "seeks the destruction of Israel, has encouraged terrorism through its proxies and has supplied weapons to Russia to support Putin's invasion of Ukraine." Both leaders, from different starting points, arrived at the same destination: firm alignment with the United States and Israel. It was a rare moment of bipartisan foreign policy unanimity, reflecting the degree to which Iran's operations on Australian soil had settled the question, at least domestically.
The geopolitical stakes extend well beyond the immediate military confrontation. On 28 February, after the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, the Strait of Hormuz was reportedly closed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Roughly 20 per cent of the global oil supply passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow but strategically vital channel linking Gulf producers to global markets, with major exporters including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iran relying heavily on the route. A European Union naval mission official told Reuters that vessels in the region were receiving marine radio warnings from Iran's Revolutionary Guard instructing ships not to pass through the strait.
For Australian households, the consequences could be sharp and fast. As 7News reported, energy analyst Saul Kavonic warned of potential petrol price rises of between 20 and 40 per cent in coming weeks if Iran succeeds in disrupting passage through the waterway. "If things go badly in the Middle East, we could see our worst oil shock since the 1970s," he said. The US Energy Information Administration has previously documented that flows through the strait account for about one-fifth of global oil consumption, and that most volumes transiting the strait have no practical alternative route. A prolonged closure of the strait could tip the global economy into recession.
Those warning of catastrophic consequences are not wrong to do so. The case against the strikes, made by critics in international forums, rests on the argument that decapitating a government, however repressive, without a clear plan for what follows can create conditions more dangerous than those it resolves. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at an emergency Security Council meeting that "everything must be done to prevent a further escalation," warning that "the alternative is a potential wider conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability." Iran's top security official, Ali Larijani, said the United States and Israel were seeking to "plunder and disintegrate" the country, and warned that any secessionist groups attempting to take action would face a harsh response. The humanitarian risks for ordinary Iranians, who have lived under a system they did not choose, are real and should not be collapsed into the question of whether the regime deserved its fate.
There is also the constitutional question, at least in an American context. The US Congress aimed to vote on a war powers resolution in the coming week, reflecting unresolved tensions about the executive's authority to authorise major military action. Australia faces no such immediate parliamentary constraint, but the speed with which Canberra aligned itself with Washington will invite legitimate scrutiny about the extent to which Australia was consulted, rather than simply informed.
None of that settles the harder question: whether a nuclear-armed Iran would have posed a greater long-term threat than the instability now unfolding. Albanese acknowledged the weight of the moment, saying he understood it was "a very difficult time for the tens of thousands of Australians with loved ones in the Middle East." That human dimension, easily lost in the sweep of geopolitical argument, is the one that will matter most to the people now watching the news from lounge rooms across the country. The days ahead, as the Prime Minister noted, are going to be difficult. The degree to which they are also dangerous will depend on choices made in the hours and weeks to come, in capitals far from Canberra.