Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has exposed Iran as the orchestrator behind two “extraordinary and dangerous” antisemitic attacks in Australia — and has expelled Iran’s ambassador and diplomats.
Albanese said a “painstaking” ASIO investigation had uncovered that Iran’s regime instigated the attacks on the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne in December and the Lewis Continental Kitchen in Sydney in October.
The Prime Minister said it was likely that Iran had “directed further attacks as well”.
He said the government was taking “strong and decisive action in response”.
“We informed the Iranian ambassador to Australia (Ahmad Sadeghi) he would be expelled,” he told media on Tuesday, which was the first post-war expulsion of a foreign diplomatic team.
Australia has also suspended operations at the Australian embassy in Tehran, and all diplomats were now safe in a third country, he said. Australia has had a diplomatic presence in Iran since 1968.
“I can also announce the government will legislate to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard…as a terrorist organisation.”
Albanese said Iran had sought to “disguise its involvement” but ASIO had gathered enough credible intelligence to reach the “deeply disturbing conclusion” that it was responsible.
The Prime Minister accused Iran of attempting to undermine social cohesion and sow discord.
“They have sought to harm and terrorise Jewish Australians and sow hatred and division in our community,” he said.
“The actions of my government send a clear message, a message to all Australians we stand against antisemitism, and we stand against violence.
“And a message to nations like Iran who seek to interfere in our country, that your aggression will not be tolerated.”
When asked by a journalist if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should apologise for calling Albanese “weak” on antisemitism, he said: “I’m not interested in personal issues.”
ASIO chief Mike Burgess said antisemitism had been a pressing focus of the agency over the past 10 months.
“Our painstaking investigation uncovered and unpicked the links between the alleged crimes and the commanders in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC,” said Burgess.
“The IRGC used a complex web of proxies to hide its involvement. This is the kind of boundary blurring I warned about earlier this year.”
But the government hadn’t previously listed the Revolutionary Guard under existing terrorism laws because it was a government entity, meaning urgent laws are being drafted to list it.
The attacks weren’t directed through the Iranian embassy in Australia but by the Revolutionary Guard through overseas actors, including organised crime groups, Burgess said.
“They tap into a number of people, agents of IRGC, and people that they know in the criminal world, and work through there, so it’s a series of chains,” the ASIO boss said.
“There’s an organised crime element offshore in this.
“But that’s not to suggest organised crime are doing it, they’re just using cut-outs, including people who are criminals and members of organised crime gangs, to do their bidding or direct their bidding.”
Home Affairs minister Tony Burke said Iran’s meddling was an “unprecedented attack on our society”.
“It’s true that no-one was injured in these attacks, it is not true that no-one was harmed,” he said of the attacks.
“The community of the Adass Israel synagogue was harmed, the community that shopped at the Lewis Continental Kitchen was harmed, the Jewish community was harmed, other communities that were blamed were harmed, and simply Australia was attacked and Australia was harmed.”
Burke said that designating Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror organisation “sends the strongest possible signal that this conduct has reached a new and totally unacceptable low”.
-with AAP
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