MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Iran’s ambassador to Australia will be expelled after intelligence revealed the Iranian government was behind at least two antisemitic attacks in Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organization concluded that the Iranian government had directed attacks on the Lewis Continental Kitchen, a kosher food company, in Sydney in October last year and the Addas Israel synagogue in Melbourne in December last year, Albanese said.
Iran’s government had no immediate reaction to the news.
Shortly before the announcement, the Australian government told Iran’s Ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi that he will be expelled. It also withdrew Australian diplomats posted in Iran to a third country, Albanese said.
There has been a steep rise in antisemitic incidents in Sydney and Melbourne since the Israel-Hamas war began in 2023.
“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, referring to the main domestic spy agency.
He added that Australia will legislate to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.
“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.”
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has been accused of carrying out attacks abroad over the decades 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 in the past to target dissidents and Israelis abroad.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, Israel has arrested several people on charges they had been paid or encouraged by Iran to carry out vandalism and monitor potential targets there.
The move against Iran came a 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 came after an Aug. 11 announcement by Albanese that his government’s recognition of a Palestinian state will be formalized at the United Nations General Assembly in September. The announcement was followed by tit-for-tat cancellations of visas for Australian and Israeli officials.
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A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that Albanese accused Iran of directing an attack on a Melbourne mosque. It was a Melbourne synagogue.
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Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
Rod Mcguirk, The Associated Press
