How Colonial Australia-Iran Relations became Complicated?

How Colonial Australia-Iran Relations became Complicated?...
aljazeera.com 05/10/2019 Politics

Keywords:#AP, #Academic, #Aljazeera.com, #American, #Arab, #Asia, #Australia, #Australian, #Bahrain, #Brisbane, #Britain, #British, #Canberra, #China, #Christian, #Donald_Trump, #Dubai, #European, #Foreign_Affairs, #Foreign_Minister, #Government, #Hormuz, #Iran, #Iranian, #Israel, #Israeli, #January, #Jolie_King, #Kylie_Moore-Gilbert, #Kyrgyzstan, #Maritime, #Mark_Firkin, #Melbourne, #Melbourne_University, #Middle_East, #News, #Oman, #Pakistan, #Persian, #Persian_Gulf, #PhD, #President, #Prime_Minister, #Reza_Dehbashi, #Saturday, #September, #Strait_of_Hormuz, #Sydney, #Tehran, #Trump, #US, #United_Kingdom, #United_States, #University, #Washington

Act Highlights:
- Act 1:Australian couple charged with spying in Iran released
- Act 2:Australia joins US mission in Strait of Hormuz amid rising tensions with Iran
- Act 3:An Iranian student that was detained in Australia for 13 months
- Act 4:Iran defeats Australia 3-1 in 2019 FIVB World Cup
Jolie King and Mark Firkin were accused by the Iranian government of using a drone to take pictures of military sites.
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne said the Perth-based couple have been released following 'very sensitive negotiations' with Iran [File: Anadolu Agency]

* * * An Australian travel-blogging couple held in Iran on charges of spying have been released, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Saturday.
Perth-based Jolie King and Mark Firkin had been documenting their journey from Australia to the United Kingdom on social media for the past two years but went silent after posting updates from Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan about three months ago.
The couple was arrested in July after they were alleged to have used a drone to take pictures of "military sites and forbidden areas", an Iranian judiciary spokesman said last month. They had since been held in the notorious Evin prison north of Tehran.
Following "very sensitive negotiations" with Tehran, the couple has been released, Payne said on Saturday.
"They are being returned to Australia and they will be reunited with their family," she told reporters in Sydney.
"For Jolie and for Mark, the ordeal they have been through is now over," she added. "They are in good spirits and they are in good health."
Meanwhile, Iran's state media reported that an Iranian student that was detained in Australia for 13 months on accusations of circumventing US sanctions on military equipment has returned to Tehran after being released.
Reza Dehbashi, a PhD student at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, had been arrested for "attempting to purchase and transfer advanced American military radar equipment via Dubai to Iran", the state TV's website said.
'Spying for another country'
Negotiations over the fate of Melbourne University Academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a third Australian accused of "spying for another country", were ongoing, Australia's Foreign Minister Payne said.
University lecturer Moore-Gilbert, who specialises in Middle East politics with a focus on Persian Gulf states, had been held for "some months" before King and Firkin in an unrelated case.
"She has been detained for some considerable time and has faced the Iranian legal system and has been convicted and sentenced," Payne said.
"We are continuing our discussions with the Iranian government," the foreign minister added. "We don't accept the charges on which she was convicted and we would seek to have her returned to Australia."
Last year, Moore-Gilbert was sentenced to 10 years in jail for spying.
News of the arrests last month came after Canberra announced it would contribute a frigate and surveillance aircraft to a US-led mission to protect shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, with tensions high in the Persian Gulf region.
Payne has maintained the cases of those being held were not related to diplomatic tensions.
SOURCE: News agencies
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-05/australia-will-not-extradite-iranian-scientist-to-united-states/11577046
Iranian University of Queensland student will not be extradited to United States, reportedly back in Iran

* * * University of Queensland research student Reza Dehbashi Kivi will not be extradited to the United States, according to Attorney-General Christian Porter.
According to Iranian state TV, Mr Dehbashi Kivi has returned home after 13 months in custody, in Australia after he allegedly circumvented the US sanctions against his native Iran.
The 38 year old was accused of exporting American equipment for detecting stealth planes or missiles to Iran.
It comes on the same day that two Australians were released after being detained in Iran for more than three months.
But Mr Porter did not say the two cases were linked.
"The Australian Government does not comment on the details behind its consideration of particular cases," he said in a statement.
"And while it is likely that because of Mr Dehbashi Kivi's nationality some will speculate regarding this matter, consistent with prior practice I do not intend to comment further on the particular details of this case, particularly when any such response from me may diminish our Government's capacity to deal with future matters of this type in Australia's best interests."
Mr Dehbashi Kivi was arrested in Brisbane and taken into custody in September last year, while he was living in Redbank Plains.
He failed in an effort to be released on bail as US officials sought to extradite him on six charges, including conspiring to export special amplifiers classified as "defence articles" under the US munitions list.
The US Government had alleged the amplifiers were bought from American companies.
Another charge accused him of "aiding and abetting in the exportation of defence articles from the United States to Iran".
Mr Dehbashi faced a maximum of 20 years in prison for the alleged offences, which dated back to 2008, when he was living in Iran.
During his bail hearing last year, his lawyer told Brisbane Magistrates Court he was studying his PhD at UQ, which involved working on developing a machine to detect skin cancers.
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3023680/australia-send-modest-contribution-join-us-strait-hormuz
Australia joins US mission in Strait of Hormuz amid rising tensions with Iran

* * * Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that Australia will send a frigate, a P8 maritime surveillance aircraft and support staff to the US-led mission
The US had asked Australia for help in patrolling the strategic shipping lane after a number of incidents involving Iran, including the seizure of ships
Australia
will join the United States
in a security mission to protect merchant vessels travelling through key Middle East waterways after Iran seized a British-flagged vessel, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday.
Britain this month became the first US ally to announce its participation, having previously called for a European-led naval mission.
Foremost among the areas to be patrolled is the Strait of Hormuz, between Oman and Iran
, through which about one-fifth of the world’s seaborne crude flows out of the Persian Gulf.
Global commodity trading has been rocked in recent months by the seizure of the British tanker and a series of attacks on international merchant vessels that the US and Britain
have blamed on Iran, though it denies involvement.
“This destabilising behaviour is a threat to Australia’s interests in the region,” Morrison told a news conference in Canberra.
“It is in Australia’s national interest to work with our international partners to contribute. Our contribution will be limited in scope and it will be time-bound.”
Morrison said Australia would send a P-8A Poseidon surveillance plane to the Middle East
for one month before the end of 2019, while an Australian frigate would be deployed for six months from January.
Australia is a staunch ally of the US, which in recent months has urged its partners to do more to defend global security.
Iran has denounced US efforts to set up the coalition and insisted countries in the region can protect strategic waterways and work towards signing a non-aggression pact.
Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Toowoomba. Photo: APRoyal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Toowoomba. Photo: AP
Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Toowoomba. Photo: AP
Australia
will join the United States
in a security mission to protect merchant vessels travelling through key Middle East waterways after Iran seized a British-flagged vessel, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday.
Britain this month became the first US ally to announce its participation, having previously called for a European-led naval mission.
Foremost among the areas to be patrolled is the Strait of Hormuz, between Oman and Iran
, through which about one-fifth of the world’s seaborne crude flows out of the Persian Gulf.
Global commodity trading has been rocked in recent months by the seizure of the British tanker and a series of attacks on international merchant vessels that the US and Britain have blamed on Iran, though it denies involvement.
“This destabilising behaviour is a threat to Australia’s interests in the region,” Morrison told a news conference in Canberra.
“It is in Australia’s national interest to work with our international partners to contribute. Our contribution will be limited in scope and it will be time-bound.”
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China likely to wipe out Asia-based US forces in conflict: report
Morrison said Australia would send a P-8A Poseidon surveillance plane to the Middle East
for one month before the end of 2019, while an Australian frigate would be deployed for six months from January.
Australia is a staunch ally of the US, which in recent months has urged its partners to do more to defend global security.
Iran has denounced US efforts to set up the coalition and insisted countries in the region can protect strategic waterways and work towards signing a non-aggression pact.
The Persian Gulf state of Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, this week became the first Arab country to announce it would join, through a tweet from its ambassador to the US. The Bahraini government was unable to provide further details when asked.
Sources briefed on the US plan had said that foreign participation could include anything from sending vessels and personnel to offering bases, logistical support, liaison officers or financing.
Bahrain already serves as headquarters to the US-led Combined Maritime Forces, a 33-nation alliance that carries out security and anti-piracy operations in the region.
Israeli media this month quoted Foreign Minister Israel Katz as telling a closed-door meeting that Israel was part of discussions and intelligence-sharing within the new coalition, though Israeli officials declined to confirm or deny the reports.
Katz told Israel’s Ynet TV: “In general, Israel is involved in what is happening in the region in everything regarding the confrontation with Iran, putting the brakes on Iran … The United States, which is spearheading a sanctions policy, certainly sees a partner in Israel.”
Most European countries, which disagree with a US decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran, have been reluctant to sign up to the US-led mission for fear of adding to tension in the region.
US President Donald Trump
withdrew Washington in 2018 from a big-power deal that had scrapped international sanctions in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme.
https://en.mehrnews.com/news/150841/Iran-defeats-Australia-3-1-in-2019-FIVB-World-Cup

Iran defeats Australia 3-1 in 2019 FIVB World Cup

* * *
TEHRAN, Oct. 05 (MNA) – Iran national volleyball team gained a 3-1 victory over Australia in the 2019 edition of FIVB Men’s World Cup underway in Japan.

In a Saturday match held at Nagano White Ring, Iran managed to seal its second consecutive victory against Australia in less than two weeks. The two teams had already locked horns in the Asian Championship’s final match in Tehran on September 21.

Australia’s Lincoln Alexander Williams led the scoring in today's match with 19 points while Amir Ghafour scored 18 points for Team Melli.

Igor kolakovic had let some of his key players, including Saeid Marouf, rest in this game to make them more prepared for next high-pressure matches.

Iran now ranks 7th in the table with two wins (against Australia, Canada) and two losses (against Russia, Egypt) and a total of six points. Brazil leads the table with four wins while Poland and US stand next.

Iran will next face Brazil on Sunday.

A total of 12 teams which are top two teams of each continent, plus Japan as host and Poland as World champion, are participating in the World Cup underway in Japan a round-robin format.
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