Australia has taken the unprecedented step of expelling several Iranian diplomats. According to Canberra, the diplomats coordinated violent, antisemitic attacks and now have seven days to leave the country.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday announced that his government had expelled Iranian Ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi and three other embassy employees for their involvement in antisemitic crimes.
Though Albanese made it clear that not all antisemitic crimes in the country could be tied back to Iran, he said that Australia’s Security Intelligence Operation (ASIO). the country’s domestic intelligence service, had found that Iran had coordinated at least one attack on a synagogue in the city of Melbourne and and a kosher restaurant in Sydney.
“Iran has sought to disguise its involvement, but ASIO assesses it was behind the attacks on the Lewis Continental Kitchen in Sydney on October 20 last year, and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on December 6,” said the prime minister.
ASIO contends that Iran may in fact be behind several more attacks.
Albanese also announced that, in response to the hostile behavior, Australia would close its embassy in Tehran.
According to Australia’s Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, all Australian embassy staff had been transferred from Iran to secure locations in third countries before the closure of the mission was announced.
Wong advised Australians against traveling to Iran and encouraged those currently in the country to leave, citing the arbitrary detention of foreign nationals in Iran as a real threat.
Albanese: Iran seeking to ‘undermine social cohesion’
In his announcement, Albanese condemned Iran’s malign activity, saying: “These were dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil. They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community, it is totally unacceptable.”
Since the beginning of the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza in 2023, Australia has experienced numerous antisemitic attacks, with vehicles, schools, homes, businesses and houses of worship all targeted for vandalism or arson.
ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess said Tehran had used a complex network of cut-outs in order to cover its own involvement in the attacks, adding that he had warned of this at the beginning of the year.
Interior Minister Tony Burke said that “it is true that no one was physically injured” in the attacks, but that “does not mean that no one suffered damages.”
Burke added that Iran’s activities in Australia had “reached an entirely unacceptable new level,” before announcing that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) would be added to Australia’s list of terrorist organizations.
Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko
DW News
