Iran has been accused of “crossing a line” after Australia’s spy agency revealed it directed two anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish premises in Sydney and Melbourne.
The federal government’s response has been swift, with Canberra moving to expel the Iranian ambassador – which is the first time Australia has booted such a high-ranking diplomat since World War II.
As well, the government is urgently drafting laws to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation.
While Foreign Minister Penny Wong acknowledged these were unprecedented moves, she said it was the “right time” to take such measures.
“When you have a regime that is behaving in Australia in a way that is inciting violent crime against Australians with the threat of harm, this is clearly a line that has been crossed,” she told the Today show on Wednesday.
“This was so beyond anything that we could accept.”
She also urged any Australians in Iran to leave immediately and warned travellers not to go to the country as the government no longer has an embassy there.
“The Iranian regime is an unpredictable regime, a regime which we have seen is capable of aggression and violence,” Senator Wong told ABC radio.
Australia’s travel advice has been updated to warn of a “high risk” of arbitrary detention or arrest.
Iran has denied the allegations through its Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei, who tried to link it to the challenges Australia faced with Israel after the government announced it was preparing to recognise a Palestinian state.
“It looks like that the action, which is against Iran, diplomacy and the relations between the two nations, is a compensation for the criticism that the Australians had against the Zionist regime,” Mr Baghaei said.
An Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson reportedly said Iran would take an “appropriate decision” in response to Australia’s action.
The Adass Israel Synagogue was one of the sites firebombed by criminal proxies in December 2024, badly damaging the building and injuring a worshipper.
Synagogue board member Benjamin Klein said he received a call from a senior official in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s office telling him the government would announce “dangerous acts of aggression” were directed by Iran.
“It is quite shocking and traumatic to think that a peaceful, loving shule (synagogue) in Melbourne is targeted and attacked by terrorists from overseas,” Mr Klein told AAP.
He said Victorian and federal authorities had been supportive with increased security arrangements at a temporary location where the congregation now gathered.
“We’re a bit more anxious, a bit more stressed and scared, but we don’t change our way.”
Police arrested a second man over the firebombing earlier in August.
The other site targeted was the Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney, a kosher deli and a mainstay of Bondi in the city’s eastern suburbs, which was firebombed in the early hours of October 20 last year.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry Alex Ryvchin said the owner of the popular shop, Judith Lewis, was still processing revelations the Revolutionary Guard had been linked to the attack.
“The fact that a business is targeted makes every Jewish Australian fearful that they could be next,” he said.
The deli arson attack was allegedly committed by Wayne Dean Ogden, 41, who remains behind bars ahead of a court appearance on October 21.
Sayed Mohammed Moosawi, 32, was released on bail three weeks ago after pleading not guilty to commissioning the attack and directing a criminal group. His case is back in court on the same day.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said on Tuesday that more anti-Semitic attacks could be linked to Iran,
Opposition has backed the government’s action.
“Any foreign power who conducts violent operations through proxies on our shores is not welcome here,” coalition home affairs spokesman Andrew Hastie told ABC radio.
The Israeli embassy in Australia welcomed the government’s decision as a “strong and important move”.
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