Australia blames Iran for anti-semitic attacks, expels its diplomats

Iran promised reciprocal action following Australia’s decision to expel its ambassador in Canberra over accusations that Tehran was behind anti-Jewish attacks in the country, according to Al Jazeera.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and three Iranian officials had seven days to leave. “Iran’s actions are completely unacceptable,” she told the briefing. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei “absolutely rejected” Australia’s accusations on Tuesday, August 26, saying “any inappropriate and unjustified action on a diplomatic level will have a reciprocal reaction”, Al Jazeera reported.

Baghaei also said Australia’s decision seemed to be “influenced by internal developments”, including weekend protests across the country against Israel’s war on Gaza, which organisers said were the largest pro-Palestine demonstrations in Australia’s history. “It seems that this action is taken to compensate for the limited criticism the Australian side has directed at the Zionist regime,” the Iranian official said.

Dangerous act of aggression

Earlier on Tuesday, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused Iran of being involved in the torching of a kosher cafe in Sydney last October and a major arson antisemitic attack on a synagogue in Melbourne in December.

“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” Albanese told a press briefing. “They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community.”

Canberra is the latest Western government to accuse Iran of carrying out hostile covert activities on its soil, Reuters reported. In July, 14 countries, including Britain, the United States, and France, condemned what they called a surge in assassination, kidnapping, and harassment plots by Iranian intelligence services.

Albanese stated that Australia’s security agency has indicated that it is likely Iran directed further attacks. The prime minister also noted that Australia has suspended operations at its embassy in Tehran and that all its diplomats are safe in a third country.

A terrorist organisation

The government would designate Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation, Albanese added, joining the United States and Canada, which already blacklist the IRGC.

Australia’s director general of the security agency, Mike Burgess, said the IRGC was directing people in Australia to undertake crimes. “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,” he added. Britain and Sweden’s intelligence officials have also accused Tehran of using criminal proxies to carry out its violent antisemitic attacks in their countries.