Australia to decide next week whether to join the airstrikes against ISIS in Syria

Whether or not Australian fighter jets would be sent to Syria in a joint air strike mission with the U.S will be decided next week, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Thursday. He also said that the decision has been kept on hold until Defence Minister Kevin Andrews returns from a government business tour in India on Friday.

Mr Abbott told the Radio 2GB that his government is “utterly committed” towards fighting against the Islamic State and that the militant organisation is even worse than the Nazis. “The Nazis did terrible evil but they had sufficient sense of shame to try and hide it,” he said. “These people boast about their evil. This is the extraordinary thing.”

On Wednesday night at the 2015 Lowy Institute lecture in Sydney, retired U.S. general David Petraeus said that by accepting the request, Australia would be able to attack the militant organisation in a highly effective way.

“Taking such action together with other coalition members will do damage to Isis,” he said. He also said that it is necessary to ensure that “we have the support ultimately to defeat” the terrorists along with the other extremist groups like the Jabhat al-Nusra and the Khorosan Group, which also operate in the region alongside the Islamic State.

The countries that have joined hands with the U.S. in a joint airstrike against the ISIS are Canada, United Kingdom, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. According to Petraeus, even though Australia’s contribution would be limited in the joint action, it would still help to “augment the action of other coalition members.”

“We needed to strip away some of these fighters, some of these sheikhs and the tribes that were supporting the insurgents,” he said.

However, the basis of Australian involvement in airstrikes in Syria is still unclear. Tanya Plibersek, the foreign affairs spokeswoman for the Labor Party, is unwilling to join the coalition unless the request is based on proper legal grounds and until the picture of victory in Syria is clear with the Australians.

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