Albanese-Trump G7 meeting in limbo as Israeli cabinet sanctions trigger US rebuke
Anthony Albanese may not meet with Donald Trump next week in Canada as relations with the US administration sour over Australia's decision to sanction two Israeli cabinet members, plus recent disagreement over defence spending.
While a potential in-person meeting on the sidelines of the Group of Seven leaders gathering in Alberta is still anticipated, senior sources told the ABC it was too soon to be "definitive" and that there were "lots of moving parts".
The prime minister departs for North America on Friday morning for the June 15-17 summit amid expectations he will sit down with Mr Trump to discuss US trade tariffs on Australian steel and other goods, and defence cooperation.
But there is also an awareness inside the Australian and US governments that Australia's decision to slap sanctions on two hard-right Israeli ministers — Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich — could trigger the "mercurial" Trump's ire.
The sanctions, which were mirrored by the UK, Canada, Norway and New Zealand, triggered an exchange of words on Wednesday between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio — who described them as counterproductive to peace in the region — and Mr Albanese, who dismissed the US charge as "predictable, frankly".
While Mr Albanese downplayed potential fallout from the sanctions, saying the matter wasn't a priority, he insisted the Israeli government "does need to uphold its obligations under international law".
The clash with the US over the sanctions comes hot on the heels of disagreement with the Trump administration over defence spending levels.
Mr Albanese this month rebuffed US Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth's call on Australia to increase "as soon as possible" its military spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP from the current level of just over 2 per cent.
While there is uncertainty about Mr Trump's willingness to meet with Mr Albanese, there is also a sense the US president is enduring his own disagreements with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Gaza.
Labor's decision to impose sanctions on the Israeli cabinet members was criticised by the Greens as "extremely late" while the opposition warned the government had "made a mistake".
Liberal senator Andrew Bragg said the use of "Magnitsky-style" sanctions on democratically elected ministers of state was inappropriate.
The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) slammed the government's "unprecedented" sanctions as a major escalation, while acknowledging the two ministers were controversial.
"AIJAC finds many statements by Smotrich and especially Ben-Gvir insupportable and we share the government's concern about settler violence against West Bank Palestinians and call on Israeli authorities to do more to stop them," said the group's executive director, Colin Rubenstein.
"However, there are many leaders of the Palestinian Authority, Iran, Turkey, and Qatar who are saying things at least as inflammatory, if not more so.
"Yet, there is no discussion of sanctioning any of them."
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