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Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador and shut its embassy in Tehran after security agencies concluded the Iranian government was behind two antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne last year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) said the October 2023 fire at Lewis Continental Kitchen, a kosher food company in Sydney, and the December 2023 fire at the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne were carried out under orders from the Iranian government, AP reported.
“ASIO has gathered enough credible intelligence to reach a deeply disturbing conclusion. The Iranian government directed at least two of these attacks. Iran has sought to disguise its involvement but ASIO assesses it was behind the attacks,” Albanese told reporters.
The government informed Iran’s envoy Ahmad Sadeghi of his expulsion shortly before Albanese’s announcement. Australian diplomats in Tehran have been relocated to a third country.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said it was the first expulsion of an ambassador by Australia since World War II. She said some channels with Tehran would remain open to protect national interests.
Iran has not responded.
ASIO chief Mike Burgess said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) directed the operations through intermediaries. “This was directed by the IRGC through a series of overseas cut-out facilitators to coordinators that found their way to tasking Australians,” Burgess said.
He said antisemitic incidents surged after the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023. “Iran was responsible for a transition in October last year when the violence directly targeted people, businesses and place of worship,” Burgess added.
Albanese said the government will legislate to declare the IRGC a terrorist organisation. “These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” he said.
“They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community. It is totally unacceptable.”
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said the attacks caused millions of dollars in damage and “terrified our community.” Two men face charges over the Melbourne synagogue fire, while a man charged in connection with the Sydney attack has denied the allegations.
The move comes days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Albanese a “weak politician who had betrayed Israel” by recognizing a Palestinian state.
(With inputs from AP, Reuters)
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