Australia Blames Iran for Antisemitic Arson Attacks, Expels Envoy

Australia accused Iran of directing two antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne and gave Tehran’s ambassador seven days to leave the country on Tuesday, its first such expulsion since World War II.

Canberra is the latest Western government to accuse Iran of carrying out hostile covert activities on its soil. Last month, 14 countries, including Britain, the US, and France, condemned what they called a surge in assassination, kidnapping, and harassment plots by Iranian intelligence services.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Australian Security Intelligence Organization had gathered credible intelligence that Iran was behind at least two attacks.

“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” Albanese told a press briefing. “They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community.”

Iran had sought to “disguise its involvement” in last year’s attacks on a kosher restaurant in Sydney and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Albanese said. No injuries were reported in the attacks.

Since the Israel-Gaza war began in October 2023, Australian homes, schools, synagogues, and vehicles have been targeted in antisemitic vandalism and arson.

Australia’s decision was motivated by internal affairs, and antisemitism had no place in Iranian culture, a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said.

Iran would take an appropriate decision in response to Australia’s action, state media quoted the spokesperson as saying.

Australia’s security agency said it was likely that Iran had directed further attacks, Albanese said, adding that Australia has suspended operations at its Tehran embassy and all its diplomats were safe in a third country.

The government would designate Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, Albanese added, joining the United States and Canada, which already blacklist the IRGC.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and three Iranian officials had seven days to leave.

“Iran’s actions are completely unacceptable,” she told the briefing.

ORGANIZED CRIME GANGS

The IRGC was directing people in Australia to undertake crimes, said Mike Burgess, director general of the security agency.

“They’re just using cut-outs, including people who are criminals and members of organized crime gangs to do their bidding or direct their bidding,” he added.

Security services in Britain and Sweden also warned last year that Tehran was using criminal proxies to carry out its violent attacks in those countries, with London saying it had disrupted 20 Iran-linked plots since 2022.

Iran has repeatedly denied such allegations, which it says are part of a campaign against it by hostile Western powers.

Israel‘s embassy in Australia welcomed the action against its major rival Iran.

“Iran’s regime is not only a threat to Jews or Israel, it endangers the entire free world, including Australia,” it said in a statement on X.

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told reporters in Israel: “For the Australian government to take those threats seriously is a positive outcome.”

Israel and Iran fought a 12-day air war in June, after Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Iran’s actions were an attack on Australia’s sovereignty, said Daniel Aghian, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), an umbrella group of more than 200 organizations.

“These were attacks that deliberately targeted Jewish Australians, destroyed a sacred house of worship, caused millions of dollars of damage, and terrified our community,” he said on Tuesday.

ARSON ATTACKS

Two men have been charged over the December attack that set ablaze the synagogue, built in the 1960s by Holocaust survivors in the suburb of Ripponlea.

Last week, police in the southeastern state of Victoria said they were examining electronic devices seized in a search of the home of one of the men, who is set to appear in court on Wednesday.

Police say three people broke into the synagogue and set the fire.

Fire gutted the kosher restaurant in Bondi, Lewis Continental Kitchen. Media said the man arrested in January over that attack had links to a well-known Australian motorcycle gang. He denied the charges in court and was freed on bail.

The Australian Iranian Community Organization welcomed the expulsion and the move to declare the IRGC as a terrorist group.

“We are really happy to see them go,” its president, Siamak Ghahreman, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in an interview.

About 90,000 Iranian-born people live in Australia.

Ties between Israel and Australia have been strained since Canberra’s center-left government decided to recognize a Palestinian state on Aug. 11.

On Sunday, thousands joined nationwide anti-Israel protests, prompting the ECAJ to warn they were leading to an “unsafe environment.”