Foreign Minister Julie Bishop today announced that Mostafa Mahamed, also known as Mostafa Farag, an Australian citizen formerly of Sydney, has been listed for targeted financial sanctions under Part 4 of the Charter of the United Nations Act 1945.
In a statement made via the Foreign Minister's office the Australian Government has welcomed the progress made towards addressing international concerns about Iran’s nuclear program and announced that it will review its sanctions on Iran in due course.
Tunis: One Australian is among 19 people killed by gunmen in the the national museum in Tunis. A total of 17 tourists were killed as well as a Tunisian citizen and policeman. Two gunmen have reportedly been killed by security forces.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will visit Iran in April to play a pivotal role in discussions on Sunni extremism and Islamic State. The last Australian foreign affairs minister to visit Tehran was Alexander Downer in 2003 and in the past 10 years only one western official has officially visited Iran.
Aside from the significance surrounding the fast emerging extremist threat the visit also holds significant economic potential for Australia including potential opportunity to reopen trade in grains, meat and other key areas.
The visit comes as a result of a direct invitation from Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Julie Bishop will also visit Baghdad and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The current Israel Netanyahu government is likely to find this development a challenge to its hard line stance against Iran - in particular its potential nuclear ambitions. For the United States however, the engagement between Iran and Austraila comes at a critical time as it seeks to reach an important nuclear agreement with Iran in the next few weeks.
Should relations between Iran and the west thaw on the back of this agreement, Julie Bishop's visit could place Australia in a front row position for new trade and security cooperation opportunities.
This week the Australian Government is hosting UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Philip Hammond and Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon for the Australia-UK Ministerial Consultations (AUKMIN) in Sydney. The AUKMIN opening address, led by Julie Bishop, can be found here.
Australia and UK today confirmed their ongoing, close cooperation on defence, foreign policy and security during the annual Australia-UK Ministerial Consultations (AUKMIN), in Sydney Australia. This includes a particular focus on the growing global threat posed by ISIL (known as Daesh throughout much of the Middle East).