What does he really want? - Albanese demands 'certainty' from Trump on Iran, urges 'de-escalation' as Canberra halves fuel tax amid crisis

"Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese demanded 'certainty' from US President Donald Trump regarding his ongoing operation against Iran, speaking at a press conference in Canberra on Monday. "I want to see more certainty in what the objectives of the war are, and I want to see a de-escalation," remarked Albanese, underlining that a ceasefire would be in the 'global economy's interests'. "History tells us that regime change imposed from outside is very difficult. [It] tends to happen from the bottom up within a country rather than being imposed from outside," the PM explained, having highlighted Trump's key objectives of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and constraining Tehran's regional proxies. During the press conference, Albanese also announced that Canberra would cut fuel tax by half for the next three months due to the global energy shock caused by the effective closure of the Hormuz Strait. "From an economic point of view, the end of the war in the Middle East can't come soon enough, and in the interim, the Albanese government is stepping in and stepping up to provide relief where we can do that in a responsible way," pointed out Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers. "This is timely, this is targeted, this is responsible cost-of-living relief to help people get through a difficult period," he added. The Strait of Hormuz is a critical global chokepoint, with approximately 20 percent of the world's total oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies passing through it daily. Amid the Middle East conflict, Iran's de facto blockade of the 21-mile-wide waterway has disrupted the transit of goods and about 20 million barrels of oil per day, pushing international oil prices to $100 per barrel. The US and Israel have been engaged in a military conflict with Iran since February 28, which began with the killing of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei."

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