The ease and speed with which Australia, along with Britain and Canada, fell in behind Donald Trump’s attack on Iran was startling. For a country that is constantly trumpeting the essentiality of the international rules-based order in preserving global peace and stability, Australia is shameless in its ability to slide into the American slipstream.

And to hide behind Iran’s alleged possession of nuclear weapons – or at least its ability to produce them – as justification for the attacks and the obliteration of Iran’s governing leadership, portrays us as gullible, duplicitous or both. Trump claimed that Iran’s ability to construct nuclear weapons was destroyed last June. Truth or lie? It cannot be both. The claim that Iran had the ability to do so until last weekend was either true or false. It could not be both. So what exactly was the case for yet another unprovoked and illegal attack on Iran?

The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, whose visit to Australia begins today, also fell conveniently into line, as did the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer. Employing the same trope as Albanese, Carney said: “Canada’s position remains clear: the Islamic Republic of Iran is the principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East, has one of the world’s worst human rights records and must........

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