Australia has expelled Iran’s ambassador, accusing Tehran of orchestrating anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish targets in Melbourne and Sydney.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the unprecedented move on Tuesday, describing it as one of the most serious breaches of Australia’s sovereignty in recent decades.
Attacks on Jewish Sites
According to intelligence reports, Iran was linked to two major arson attacks:
The Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Australia’s largest Jewish community hub.
Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, a well-known Jewish restaurant in Sydney.
Although no casualties were reported, both incidents caused significant damage and heightened fear within the Jewish community.
“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil.
They were deliberate attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community,” Mr. Albanese said.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong confirmed that this marks the first time since World War II that Canberra has expelled an ambassador.
Iran’s Ambassador to Australia, Ahmad Sadeghi, and three other Iranian diplomats have been declared persona non grata and given seven days to leave the country.
The Australian Embassy in Tehran has also suspended its operations, with all staff safely relocated to a third country.
Ms. Wong advised all Australians currently in Iran to leave immediately if it is safe to do so.
Iran Denies Allegations
Tehran swiftly rejected the accusations. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghai dismissed the claims as baseless, describing anti-Semitism as “a Western invention.”
“Anti-Semitism has no place in Islam. The West must answer for its own historical past,” he said, according to the state-run Tasnim News Agency.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) said Iran used a network of proxies to disguise its involvement in the attacks.
ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess announced that the government will move to formally designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.
“This is the sort of obfuscation and boundary-blurring I warned about earlier this year,” Mr. Burgess said.
Australia is home to an estimated 102,000 Jews, according to the 2021 census.
Melbourne houses the largest population, with about 55,000 Jews.
Sydney is home to around 47,000 Jews.
Combined, the two cities account for nearly 84 per cent of Australia’s Jewish population, which has been left shaken by the recent attacks.
The expulsion of Iran’s ambassador adds fresh strain to already tense relations between Canberra and Tehran.
Analysts say the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist group could trigger retaliatory measures by Iran, further escalating the diplomatic standoff.