Foreign Minister Julie Bishop insists Australia's expanded military involvement in the Middle East, with RAAF aircraft flying sorties over Syria, is about protecting persecuted civilian populations and not regime change in Damascus.
As Australia and other nations collectively prepare to accept hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing Syria, calls are continuing for a plan that will eventually see the removal of President Bashar al-Assad.
But Ms Bishop, speaking on Friday following talks in Sydney with her South Korean counterpart, as well as defence ministers, said Australia's focus is on protecting the persecuted masses, as well as Australia's national interest.
"Our interest is very much focused on protecting Australians from those who would join this terrorist organisation and supporting the Iraqi government in response to their request for assistance," she said.
Ms Bishop said there has been talks for some years about the political situation in Syria and how to transition from the Assad regime while also protecting the Syrian people, and those discussions are continuing.
"We support ongoing discussions for a political solution but Australia's focus at this stage is to help protect the civilian populations that have been persecuted, violated and treated in the most barbaric way by this terror organisation (Islamic State)," she said.
Ms Bishop said Australia's particular national interest is in preventing Australian citizens from travelling to Iraq and Syria and supporting Islamic State, and in preventing them from returning and carrying out terror attacks on home soil.
The comments come after British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said any British involvement in military action in Syria will be limited to disrupting Islamic State.
Former defence force chief Peter Gration said this week the prospect of resolving the situation in Syria and Iraq in two to three years, as predicted by Defence Minister Kevin Andrews, is remote.
"We are in for a longer haul - I'd be thinking in terms of a decade," Mr Gration told the ABC.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced on Wednesday RAAF military aircraft will be allowed to cross from Iraq into Syria to target IS fighters.
Labor supports the government in extending the mission into Syria.
Australia will also accept 12,000 people fleeing the conflict.
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