Australia imposes 'counterproductive' sanctions on Iran

Australia has responded to Iran's missile strike on Israel by imposing sanctions on Iranian military figures, but a Middle East expert warns it risks further emboldening the regime.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Tuesday placed financial penalties and travel bans on five individuals involved in Iran's missile program.

Alam Saleh, a senior lecturer in Iranian Studies at the Australian National University, said the move was essentially a symbolic gesture of solidarity with Australia's western allies that would have little tangible impact on Iran's regime.

Iran launched 180 ballistic missiles into Israel earlier in October in retaliation to Israel's assault on Iran-backed militia group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran's missile barrage was a "dangerous escalation that increased the risk of a wider regional war", Senator Wong said on Tuesday.

"Iran's missile program poses a material threat to regional and international security.

"Iran's proxies continue to launch daily attacks across the region, using missiles and other military equipment provided by Iran. Iran's delivery of ballistic missiles to Russia last month to aid its war against Ukraine further demonstrates Iran's destabilising role."

The sanctions targeted two directors and a senior official in Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization, the director of the Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group and a director of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group.

The move comes after the US and UK governments imposed similar sanctions on Iranian individuals in response to the missile strike.

It brings the total sanctions imposed by the Albanese government on the Islamic republic to 200 individuals and entities, almost half of which are linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - an independent branch of Iran's armed forces answerable only to the nation's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the government had done the right thing in sanctioning the individuals, but wanted it to list the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation.

"When people are talking about using nuclear weapons, when people are attacking a democracy like Israel, that's a very significant issue, and I think it should be addressed," he told reporters.

"I don't understand the government's hesitation in doing that."

Dr Saleh said the West's hardline approach to Iran had only served to drive Tehran closer to its anti-western allies and embolden its determination to develop nuclear weapons.

"Since 2018, the so-called 'maximum pressure' policy has not worked," he told AAP.

"It did not change Iran's behaviour in the region, its nuclear policies, its military policies.

"Indeed, it made Iran closer to the bomb, closer to China, closer to Russia, and it makes the Revolutionary Guard stronger internally."

Engagement with Iran was possible, as evidenced by the nuclear deal reached with the US and other members of the UN Security Council in 2015, Dr Saleh said.

But the West's approach to Iran since former president Donald Trump jettisoned the agreement in 2018 has changed the dynamic.

"Iran no longer trusts the West and the West is not willing to make any kind of attempts to change this and to make Iran trust them again," Dr Saleh said.

"Indeed, with further sanctions, it sounds like the West has no clear strategy to deal with Iran.

"The Cold War logic is no longer working in the Middle East. Actually, it has a counterproductive result."