‘Fantasyland’: Hastie says rules-based order is dead as Australian troops declared safe after UAE base drone strike

Liberal MP says rules are irrelevant when Trump acts as an ‘apex opportunist’, following a drone strike at Al Minhad airbase where Australian troops are based

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Coalition frontbencher Andrew Hastie has declared anyone who thinks the rules-based order still exists is living in a “fantasyland”, amid an escalating US-Israel war on Iran, and as the government confirmed Australian troops in the region were safe after a weekend drone strike.

Australian troops posted at the defence force’s headquarters in the United Arab Emirates are all accounted for after a weekend drone strike, the federal government said, amid the growing conflict sparked by US and Israeli bombings in Iran.