Australians of Iranian heritage face verbal abuse and intimidation over Tehran’s “insidious” direction of two anti-Semitic attacks in the nation’s largest cities.
The Albanese government has taken the extraordinary step of booting Iranian ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi from Australia, making him the first high-ranking diplomat to be expelled since World War II.
The nation’s spy agency said it had credible evidence the Iranian Revolutionary Guard had orchestrated at least two attacks on Jewish institutions in Sydney and Melbourne through criminals.
Mr Sadeghi was spotted leaving the Iranian embassy in Canberra on Wednesday morning.
Australian Iranian Society of Victoria vice president Kambiz Razmara said the local diaspora had been asking for the ambassador’s expulsion since 2022, following the regime’s crackdown on the women’s rights movement.
He said there had already been reports Australia’s Iranian community was being conflated with the actions of Iranian authorities.
“It is important for people to recognise that we, the Iranian diaspora, are opposed to what happens in Iran,” Mr Razmara said.
“The Iranian diaspora, by and large, are here because they’re seeking freedom and social cohesion and freedom of expression and democracy, so anything that tarnishes that we are resolutely against.”
Iran’s foreign ministry rejects the accusations made by Australia, instead linking them to the dispute Canberra faced with Israel after Labor announced it planned to recognise Palestine as a state.
The government had taken the right step after Iran’s “insidious, underhanded” work in destabilising Australian society, said David Andrews from the National Security College at the Australian National University.
On Australia’s relationship with Iran, Mr Andrews said Canberra had in the past been able to conduct diplomacy on behalf of its friends and allies who do not have a mission in Tehran.
“(The expulsion) potentially puts that role at some risk,” he said.
He said Australia should expect some retaliation.
“The risk of people being used as political pawns, or people who have either dual citizenship or Australians passing through Iran, could be used as a point of leverage or sort of in response to this action,” Mr Andrews said.
“There’s no one who will be rushing to try and repair those ties too actively.”
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