KUALA KUBU BAHARU, April 22 — The Defence Ministry (Mindef) is prepared to assist the Foreign Affairs Ministry (Wisma Putra) if there is a need to bring back Malaysians in Iran following the increasingly worrying conflict between the country and Israel.
However, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the decision is subject to Wisma Putra after assessing the latest situation in Iran.
He said the government will definitely take the appropriate action to ensure that Malaysians, wherever they are, are safe and spared from any conflict of war.
“So far, there is no (war in Iran), nothing more than a temporary drone attack… Accordingly, we (Mindef) depend on Wisma Putra, they will know everything (development of the situation in Iran).
“It does not mean that the Armed Forces (ATM) are ordered to go there (Iran), but if necessary, we need to first study the logistics and the routes we can enter and cannot enter… if this happens, the ‘frontliner’ is the Foreign Affairs Ministry to tell us (Mindef)… what role can we play because as an army we cannot go straight into people’s countries,” Khaled said.
He was speaking to the press after visiting the Armed Forces Family House at Taman Seruling today.
Khaled added that before the decision to bring back Malaysians is made, verified information about the situation in Iran needs to be carefully studied to determine whether it is getting worse or vice versa.
“All countries and the world want the best, which is that this conflict does not last long, and if we look, we do not even know the source of the news that is really authentic (retaliatory attack between Iran and Israel).
“If we look at the response, it is said that a drone from Israel was sent to Isfahan, the area where there is indeed a nuclear centre in Iran; the drones have all been successfully shot down… nothing more than that.
“So the source (authenticity of the news) is not certain. The Israeli side did not say anything, and the United States side did not say anything either. What we only hear is from TikTok,” he said.
Earlier, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the government is ready to bring back Malaysians from Iran if the development of the conflict between the country and Israel becomes more worrying.
On Friday (April 19), Israel launched an attack on Iran in response to Tehran’s attack last weekend.
Tel Aviv previously warned of retaliating after Iran launched 300 drones and missiles at Israel last weekend, but most were intercepted.
Tehran’s attack was in response to Israel’s bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus earlier this month.
— Bernama
