Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused Iran of organizing two antisemitic attacks in Australia and said the country was cutting off diplomatic relations with Tehran in response on Tuesday.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organization concluded the Iranian government had directed arson attacks on the Lewis Continental Kitchen, a kosher food company, in Sydney in October last 12 months and on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne in December last 12 months, Albanese said.
Iran’s government denied the allegations.
Australian intelligence says Iran was behind arson attacks
There was a steep rise in antisemitic incidents in Sydney and Melbourne because the Israel-Hamas war began in 2023.
Australian authorities have previously said they think that foreign actors are paying local criminals-for-hire to perform attacks within the country.
Police have already arrested at the least one suspect within the Sydney cafe fire investigation and two suspects directly accused of torching the Melbourne synagogue.
Sayed Mohammed Moosawi, a 32-year-old Sydney-based former chapter president of the Nomads biker gang, has been charged with directing the fireplace bombings of the Sydney café in addition to the nearby Curly Lewis Brewery. The brewery was apparently confused for the café and mistakenly targeted three days earlier for an antisemitic attack.
Giovanni Laulu, a 21-year-old man from Melbourne, was charged last month with being considered one of three masked arsonists who caused extensive damage to the synagogue in December.
A second alleged arsonist, a 20-year-old man also from Melbourne, is anticipated to seem in court Wednesday, a police statement said. He has not been publicly named.
“ASIO has now gathered enough credible intelligence to succeed in a deeply disturbing conclusion,” Albanese told reporters. “The Iranian government directed at the least two of those attacks. Iran has sought to disguise its involvement but ASIO assesses it was behind the attacks.
“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 completely unacceptable.”
Australia breaks off diplomatic relations and warns residents in Iran
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Shortly before the announcement, the Australian government told Iran’s Ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi that he can be expelled. It also withdrew Australian diplomats posted in Iran to a 3rd country, Albanese said.
An alert to Australians in Iran noted the embassy’s closure and urged them to “strongly consider leaving as soon as possible, whether it is secure to accomplish that.”
“Foreigners in Iran, including Australians and dual Australian-Iranian nationals, are at a high risk of arbitrary detention or arrest,” the warning read.
Australia updated its warning to travelers to its highest level: “Don’t travel” to Iran.
Iran has a protracted history of detaining Westerners or those with ties abroad to make use of as bargaining chips in negotiations.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that Canberra would keep some diplomatic lines open to Tehran to advance Australia’s interests. She added that it was the primary time Australia has expelled an envoy since World War II.
Albanese goals to declare Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization
Albanese said that Australia will legislate to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.
Australia’s law makes providing support to a listed terrorist organization a criminal offense.
The federal government has previously rejected calls to list the Revolutionary Guard under existing terrorism laws since it is a government entity.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has been accused of carrying out attacks abroad over the many years of its existence, though it broadly denies any involvement. The Guard’s Quds, or Jerusalem, Force is its expeditionary arm and is accused by Western nations of using local militants and criminals up to now to focus on dissidents and Israelis abroad.
A spokesperson for the Executive Council of Australian Jewry welcomed the terrorist designation for the Revolutionary Guard, adding in a press release that the group was “outraged” that a foreign actor was behind the crimes.
“Foremost, these were attacks that deliberately targeted Jewish Australians, destroyed a sacred house of worship, caused tens of millions of dollars of injury, and terrified our community,” the statement said.
Because the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, Israel has arrested several people on charges they’d been paid or encouraged by Iran to perform vandalism and monitor potential targets there.
Iran denies the allegations
Iran denied Australia’s allegations through its Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei, who tried to link it to the challenges Australia faced with Israel after announcing it might recognize a Palestinian state.
“It looks like that the motion, which is against Iran, diplomacy and the relations between the 2 nations, is a compensation for the criticism that the Australians had against the Zionist regime,” Baghaei claimed.
The move against Iran got here every week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branded Albanese a “weak politician who had betrayed Israel” by recognizing a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu’s extraordinary public rebuke on social media got here after an Aug. 11 announcement by Albanese that his government’s recognition of a Palestinian state can be formalized on the United Nations General Assembly in September. That announcement was followed by tit-for-tat cancellations of visas for Australian and Israeli officials.
Albanese previously resisted calls to expel Iran’s envoy to Canberra before, analysts said, including in 2024 when Sadeghi was summoned for meetings with foreign ministry officials over his social media posts.
Michael Shoebridge, a former Australian defense and security official and director of the think tank Strategic Evaluation Australia, said he didn’t consider the move was prompted by Israel’s complaints.
“I don’t think that’s a matter of Australia-Israel relations, but a matter of community cohesion here in Australia,” he said.
Australia says Iran helped escalate antisemitic incidents
Neither ASIO director-general Mike Burgess nor Albanese explained what evidence there was of Iranian involvement.
Burgess said no Iranian diplomats in Australia were involved.
“This was directed by the IRGC through a series of overseas cut-out facilitators to coordinators that found their option to tasking Australians,” Burgess said.
While antisemitic incidents increased in Australian after the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7 2023, Iran was accountable for a transition in October last 12 months when the violence more directly targeted people, businesses and places of worship, Burgess said.
“Iran began the primary of those,” Burgess said.