Australia is expelling the Iranian ambassador to Canberra after the country’s intelligence agency found that Iran was behind at least two antisemitic attacks on Australian soil.
Australia’s Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) had linked Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to two arson attacks last year, targeting a Jewish-owned restaurant in Sydney and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a press conference.
“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” Albanese said.
The Iranian ambassador, Ahmad Sadeghi, and three other diplomatic staff have been given seven days to leave the country, Albanese said. It’s the first time Australia has expelled a foreign ambassador since the second World War.
Australia has also suspended operations at its embassy in Iran for the safety of its consular officials, and Australians in Iran have been urged to leave the country.
Albanese said Iran’s IRGC – an elite wing of the Iranian military considered instrumental in crushing dissent at home and projecting Iran’s power abroad by funding militia across the Middle East – would also be listed as a terrorist agency. The US moved to declare it a terrorist group in 2019.
“I’ve said many times that the Australian people want two things: They want killing in the Middle East to stop, and they don’t want conflict in the Middle East brought here. Iran has sought to do just that,” Albanese added.
“They have sought to harm and terrify Jewish Australians and to sow hatred and division in our community,” he said.
ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess said the antisemitic attacks in Australia were directed by the IRGC and carried out by “a layer cake” of intermediaries.
“This was directed by the IRGC through a series of overseas cut-out facilitators to coordinators that found their way to tasking Australians,” he said.
