The war on Iran live: Trump says military operation is a ‘four-week process’ amid American casualties

Foreign Minister Penny Wong says about 115,000 Australians are believed to be in the Middle East amid the Iranian conflict.

Thousands of flights have been disrupted across the world since the onset of US-Israel strikes on Iran, with Senator Wong also noting about 11,000 Australians had been coming in and out of Australia via Etihad, Emirates and Qatar airlines.

“On estimates, we have about 115,000 Australians in the region. So, there are a lot of Australians in the region,” she said.

“My first priority is to do everything we can to keep Australians safe. Obviously, it’s very difficult at the moment for the government to provide a great deal of assistance in circumstances where flights are being cancelled, disrupted and airspace is closed.”

She urged people in the region to register on the DFATs online portal which was launched on Sunday.

The UK has authorised the use of British military bases in the Middle East following a request from the US.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the UK is “not joining these strikes” on Iran but it would provide the bases for “specific and limited defence purposes”.

“Our partners in the Gulf have asked us to do more to defend them,” he said.

“The only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source in their storage depots or the launchers which are used to fire the missiles.

“The US has requested permission to use British bases for that specific and limited defensive purpose. We have taken the decision to accept this request.”

Donald Trump says the deaths of at least three American soldiers was expected.

Soon after the US military confirmed the military personel had been killed, the US President said “we expect casualties with something like this.”

“We have three, but we expect casualties, but in the end it’s going to be a great deal for the world,” Trump told NBC News.

US Central Command also confirmed on Sunday that five US service members had been wounded in military operations against Iran.

US President Donald Trump says the attacks on Iran could go on for at least the next four weeks.

“It’s always been a four-week process. We figured it will be four weeks or so. It’s always been about a four-week process so - as strong as it is, it’s a big country, it’ll take four weeks - or less,” the Daily Mail reported is reporting.

When asked if he is still open to negotiation the President added: “I don’t know, they want to talk, but I said you should have talked last week, not this week.”

US President Donald Trump says that a second day of strikes agaist Iran has crippled Iran’s navy.

After the US executed strikes in Iran that killed dozens of top officials and the Iranian supreme leader Mr Trump said there have been major strikes against navl targets.

“I have just been informed that we have destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian Naval Ships, some of them relatively large and important,” Mr Trump said.

“We are going after the rest — They will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea, also!”

“In a different attack, we largely destroyed their Naval Headquarters.”

Australians living in the Middle East have described feeling “alert, but not alarmed” as missile strikes and widespread airspace closures bring major travel hubs to a standstill.

More than 3,500 flights have been cancelled across the region, with roughly one million passengers stranded in a single day.

Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha international airports have all closed, with Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways flagging they are unlikely to resume operations for at least another 24 hours.

The shutdown follows Iran’s retaliatory strikes against the US and Israel, which have hit Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha, with Dubai’s international airport sustaining damage from a missile attack.

Lachlan Kitchen, an Australian expat living in Dubai, told Sunrise on Monday the situation felt eerily familiar to COVID-19.

“We used to hear during COVID that we’re living in unprecedented times, and it feels like we’re sort of reliving that,” Kitchen said.

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Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the US and Israel should be left to explain the legality of their strikes on Iran, despite Australia being one the first countries to back the attack that ultimately killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Speaking to the ABC, Senator Wong was asked about the justification of America’s actions under international law, particularly as critics compare the military strikes on Iran to the illegal US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“Well, the one of the distinctions with Iraq, between Iraq and now, is that we are not participating in these strikes. That’s the first point I’d make,” she said.

“The second is, what I’ve said, is that the legal basis of this is for the United States and Israel to explain.”