Australian PM delivers warning against supporting terrorists

Source:Xinhua Published: 2014-9-30 17:52:33

Australia's prime minister Tony Abbott has warned those providing support to terrorists that they are putting lives at risk at home and abroad.

"Anyone who supports terrorists is complicit in the dreadful deeds they do," Abbott told the federal parliament on Tuesday.

"Anyone who actively supports terrorists is putting Australian lives at risk because terrorist activity in the Middle East is now reaching back here to us in Australia."

His statement came on the same day that police in the state of Victoria and federal counter-terrorism officers launched raids across Melbourne following an alert by the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Hassan El Sabsabi, 23, of the south-western suburb of Seabrook, now faces charges that he sponsored a US man to fight alongside terrorists in Syria.

Abbott's conservative coalition government is in the process of
finalizing plans to approve air strikes in Iraq as part of the fight against Islamic State (IS).

He said the militant IS group, also known as ISIL, had " effectively declared war on the world", adding Australians should "be aware but reassured" that his government was providing "calm confidence".

"Our objective is to support governments that don't commit genocide against their own people, nor allow their territory to support terrorism against our people," Abbott told the parliament.

The cabinet's national security committee is expected to meet on Thursday, followed by a full cabinet meeting, to finalize legal and other measures to clear the way for military action in Iraq.

The policy has drawn bipartisan support, with the Labor Party's opposition defence spokesman Stephen Conroy saying he appreciated that the government had to take time to prepare the legal framework for the Iraq mission.

"It is absolutely vital that we get in place the proper protections for forces on the ground," Conroy said.

Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten told his party room national security must be put above politics, though he was concerned some coalition members were trying to "ban the burqa" by law.

"That language is designed to make ignorance sound truthful and intolerance respectable," Shorten said.

Australia has placed special forces on standby at its Camp Baird base in the United Arab Emirates and assembled a task group that includes six Super Hornets and a Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft, supported by 600 military personal.

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