From Washington: In a development that will reverberate across the Pacific, the United States and Israel launched a co-ordinated military operation against Iran on Saturday, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and triggering retaliatory strikes across the Middle East that have left thousands of Australians stranded, flights cancelled, and Canberra scrambling to account for its citizens abroad.
The joint operation, codenamed Roaring Lion by Israel and Operation Epic Fury by the United States, began in the early hours of Saturday morning Tehran time with massive airstrikes on the Iranian capital. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, was killed in the joint American-Israeli operation, Iran's state media confirmed. Israel's military said that top Iranian security officials were among those killed, including the country's defence minister, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the secretary of the Iranian Security Council, a close adviser to Khamenei.
On 28 February 2026, Israel and the United States launched their joint attack on various sites in Iran, targeting key officials, military commanders, and facilities. In the weeks before the attack, Iran and the US had been in indirect nuclear negotiations mediated by Oman, and a second round of nuclear talks had been scheduled in Geneva. According to one US source, Trump authorised the strike after receiving intelligence that Iran was planning to preemptively launch missiles.
For Australian travellers, the human cost of the conflict has been immediate. DFAT estimates that upwards of 15,000 Australians are currently in the affected region, many of them dual citizens or expats working in the aviation and energy sectors of the Gulf. More than 3,400 flights were cancelled on Sunday across seven airports in the Middle East, according to flight tracker Flightradar24, with airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar's capital Doha, among those closed.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong indicated that airspace closures caused by Iranian retaliatory strikes are likely to limit the federal government's ability to organise repatriation flights for Australians stranded in the Middle East. "The government is very aware this is extremely distressing and concerning for the region, and particularly Australians in the region," she told reporters in Adelaide on Sunday. A diplomatic crisis centre has been established.
Virgin Australia said four flights bound for Doha operated by Qatar Airways rerouted to Australia on Saturday night due to the closure of Qatari airspace, including flights from Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth, with seven further flights cancelled. The three major airlines operating at those hubs, Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad, typically carry about 90,000 passengers per day through Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offered Canberra's clearest political signal yet, backing Washington's rationale for the strikes. The Iranian government declared 40 days of national mourning after Khamenei was killed. Albanese was blunt in his assessment, telling a press conference that Khamenei "will not be mourned", and that the regime was "responsible for orchestrating attacks on Australian soil", as reported by 9News. He said Australia "stands with the brave people of Iran in their struggle against what is an oppressive regime."
"For decades, the Iranian regime has been a destabilising force, through its ballistic missile and nuclear programs, support for armed proxies, and brutal acts of violence and intimidation," Albanese said. The Prime Minister also pointed to attacks on Jewish synagogues in Australia in 2024 as evidence of Iranian-directed interference on Australian soil, actions that had already prompted Canberra to expel Iran's ambassador and list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor was equally pointed in his assessment, calling the Iranian regime "authoritarian, antisemitic and abhorrent" in a post on X, adding that it had "supplied weapons to Russia to support Putin's invasion of Ukraine" and encouraged terrorism through its proxies. Both major parties are aligned on this, an unusual degree of bipartisan consensus on an act of war by an ally.
A Region in Chaos
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps pledged revenge and said it had launched attacks on 27 bases hosting US troops in the Middle East, as well as Israeli military facilities in Tel Aviv. Iranian missiles were fired at Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Doha, all key east-west aviation gateways and locations where an American military build-up of weaponry had occurred in advance of the strikes. Four people were injured after a missile hit a concourse at Dubai International Airport on Sunday morning.
An Iranian drone hit the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Manama, Bahrain, causing a fire and the intervention of Bahraini civil defence teams to safeguard tourists and personnel in the hotel. The breadth of the retaliation means that countries not typically associated with the conflict, including Qatar and Bahrain, have found themselves targets. 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 is meanwhile attempting to manage a severe leadership crisis. National Security Adviser Ali Larajani called a critical meeting on Sunday to begin the process of appointing a new supreme leader, according to 7News. Khamenei's son, aged 56, has emerged as a potential successor after surviving the strike that killed several of his family members. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed to avenge the killing, setting off a declaration of martyrdom and 40 days of national mourning in Iran.
Legitimate Questions About Legality and Process
The operation raises serious questions that Canberra has not fully addressed. Congressional Democrats decried that Trump had taken action without congressional authorisation, though the White House said it had briefed several Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress in advance. Australian confirmation that it received no advance notice of the strikes, yet backed them publicly within hours, will invite scrutiny of whether Australia's endorsement reflects genuine strategic alignment or simply the weight of alliance obligation.
Critics of the operation, including legal scholars and several international bodies, have raised the question of whether the targeted killing of a head of state constitutes a breach of international law, regardless of the moral character of the regime involved. Russia's President Vladimir Putin offered a pointed rebuke, expressing "deep condolences" over what he called a killing "in cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law", according to 7News. Pope Leo XIV called on all parties "to assume the moral responsibility to stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss."
These are not trivial objections. The precedent set by the targeted assassination of a sitting head of state by Western powers, however oppressive that leader, carries implications for international norms that extend well beyond the current conflict. Australia's enthusiastic endorsement, rather than a more measured call for restraint, may complicate its diplomatic relationships in the region and within multilateral forums.
What This Means for Australia
Australia has issued "do not travel" warnings for Israel, Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates as tensions escalate, and is urgently trying to verify if any citizens have been caught up in the conflict. Australians already in those countries are being urged to leave as soon as it is safe to do so, with the Smartraveller website updated to reflect the rapidly shifting threat environment. Australian citizens, permanent residents, and their immediate family members in Israel and Iran can register on DFAT's registration portal to receive direct updates.
"For travellers, there's no way to sugarcoat this," said Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst and president of Atmosphere Research Group. "You should prepare for delays or cancellations for the next few days as these attacks evolve and hopefully end." Airlines rerouting flights around the conflict, many heading south over Saudi Arabia, will add hours to journeys and consume additional fuel, and ticket prices could quickly increase if the conflict lingers.
The prudent course for any Australian in the region right now is to register with DFAT's crisis hub, contact their airline directly, and follow the guidance of local authorities. The geopolitics of this conflict are genuinely complex. The Iranian regime's record on human rights, nuclear proliferation, and proxy violence gave Western governments legitimate grounds for long-standing concern. But the method chosen, a sweeping military campaign timed during Ramadan that has destabilised civilian air travel across an entire region, carries costs that extend far beyond the battlefield. For the tens of thousands of Australians now caught in that disruption, the distinction between strategic necessity and strategic recklessness is not an abstract one.
What seems clear, at least for now, is that the Albanese government has chosen a firm alliance posture over a cautious multilateral one. Whether that bet pays off depends entirely on what happens next in Tehran, a city still shrouded in smoke and uncertainty as a new week begins.