Australia accuses Iran of directing antisemitic attacks on cafe and synagogue

Australia has given Iran's ambassador seven days to leave the country after alleging the country's government directed antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.

Intelligence services linked Iran to an arson attack on a cafe in Sydney in October last year, and another on a synagogue in Melbourne in December, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a press conference on Tuesday.

Albanese added the two incidents were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community.

Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and three other officials have been ordered to leave Australia, which has withdrawn its own diplomats from Tehran. Iran has absolutely rejected the allegations.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman added the decision to expel their envoy was driven by Australia's domestic policies.

However, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) chief Mike Burgess said his teams had uncovered links between the alleged crimes and the commanders in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), following a painstaking, months-long investigation.

He added that IRGC had used a complex web of proxies to hide its involvement in the attacks on the Lewis Continental Kitchen in Sydney on 20 October, and Melbourne's Adass Israel Synagogue on 6 December.

Australia's intelligence services also found evidence Iran was likely to be behind other antisemitic incidents in Australia, particularly after the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, which is allied with Iran, and the ensuing war in Gaza.

In the same timeframe, civil society group the Islamophobic Register has also recorded a rise in Islamophobic incidents.

Police first suggested they were investigating whether overseas actors were behind attacks on Jewish-linked properties back in January.

The findings revealed on Tuesday were deeply disturbing, Albanese stated, describing the two incidents as extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression.

In the second incident, several worshippers fled as the synagogue caught fire, a site established by Holocaust survivors in the 1960s.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong noted that this was the first time since World War Two that Australia had expelled an ambassador.

While the ambassador was not found to have links to the attacks, Wong indicated that some diplomatic lines with Tehran would remain, albeit operations at its embassy in Iran were suspended for staff safety.

Furthermore, Wong urged Australians not to travel to Iran and advised any citizens in the country to leave if safe.

Albanese's government plans to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization.

Israel's embassy in Canberra welcomed the Australian government's actions against Iran. Iran's regime is not only a threat to Jews or Israel, it endangers the entire free world, including Australia, they stated via X.