Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has held urgent talks with the United Arab Emirates government as Australia confronts what its own foreign minister has called the largest consular operation the country has ever undertaken. Around 115,000 Australians are currently stranded across the Middle East, with regional airspace shut down entirely following the escalation of conflict between Iran, the United States, and Israel.
The scale of the crisis is hard to overstate. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade normally sees about 11,000 Australians transiting through the region on any given day. That pipeline has been severed. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Albanese engaged directly with UAE leadership as the government scrambled to find pathways home for citizens caught in the disruption.
In those talks, Albanese called on Iran to cease its attacks against the UAE and other countries in the region, and thanked the UAE for accommodating and feeding Australians stranded by the conflict. He also raised the urgency of commercial flights resuming as quickly as safety permits. Separately, Albanese spoke with New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, with the two leaders comparing notes on the consular challenges they each face and agreeing on the importance of restoring air travel to the region.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who confirmed she had spoken with her UAE counterpart, was characteristically direct about the outlook.
"The unfortunate reality is that immediate resolution to this situation is unlikely,"she told the Senate, adding that a small number of commercial flights to alternative destinations had departed overnight. Wong described the operation as one that "dwarfs any consular operation" DFAT has ever conducted.
Adding to the government's immediate security concerns, the Al Minhad Air Base near Dubai, which has served as Australia's forward-deployed military headquarters in the Middle East since 2003, was struck by Iranian drones on the opening night of the conflict. Defence Minister Richard Marles confirmed that all ADF personnel were "safe and accounted for". The facility, roughly 30 kilometres south of Dubai, ordinarily hosts between 70 and 80 ADF staff and supports up to 12 concurrent operations across the region. Marles acknowledged on Tuesday that the attack had occurred on Saturday Canberra time, though the government had not publicly disclosed the strike during Parliament on Monday.
Iran's retaliatory campaign, launched after the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes, has been sweeping in its geography. Beyond Al Minhad, reported targets in the UAE include Dubai International Airport, widely considered the world's busiest for international traffic, the Jebel Ali seaport, and Dubai's landmark Burj Al Arab hotel. The breadth of the strikes has made a swift reopening of airspace far from certain.
The government has opened a registration portal for Australians in Israel, Iran, the UAE, and Qatar seeking consular assistance. Marles has described the situation as a "very significant consular challenge" and said the government has all scenarios in mind as it works through contingencies. The Al Minhad base, analysts have noted, could serve as a staging point for possible Australian Defence Force evacuation flights if conditions allow, though the government has not yet announced any such operations.
Australia's position within this conflict carries genuine complexity. Canberra has declared it will not participate militarily in the US-Israeli strikes, yet Marles has simultaneously voiced support for their stated objective of preventing Iran from acquiring a deployable nuclear weapon. Critics from the left have argued this is an untenable halfway house, lending political legitimacy to military action while avoiding accountability for its consequences. That is not an entirely unfair charge. At the same time, a government responsible for 115,000 of its citizens abroad has limited appetite for escalatory posturing when its primary task is getting people home safely.
On that front, the pressure will only grow. The government's ability to demonstrate competent crisis management, coordinating with international partners, keeping citizens informed, and creating conditions for a safe return, will matter far more to most Australians right now than the finer points of foreign policy doctrine. The consular operation ahead is vast, the timeline uncertain, and the diplomatic stakes real. What the moment requires, above all, is clear-eyed coordination over rhetoric, and the early signs suggest at least some of that is underway.