SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia accused Iran on Tuesday of executing two antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne and gave Tehran’s ambassador seven days to leave the country, in its first such ejection since World War Two.
Since the Israel-Gaza war began in October 2023, Australian homes, schools, synagogues and vehicles have been targeted in antisemitic vandalism and arson.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation had gathered credible intelligence that Iran had directed at least two attacks.
“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.”
Iran had “sought to disguise its involvement” in last year’s attacks on a kosher restaurant in Sydney and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Albanese said.
Australia’s security agency said it was likely that Iran had directed further attacks, he added.
Australia has suspended operations at its Tehran embassy and all its diplomats were safe in a third country, Albanese said, adding that his government would designate Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and three Iranian officials had seven days to leave, in Australia’s first expulsion of an envoy since World War Two.
Israel’s embassy in Australia welcomed the action against its major rival Iran.
“Iran’s regime is not only a threat to Jews or Israel, it endangers the entire free world, including Australia,” it said in a statement on X.
The two countries fought a 12-day air war in June, after Israel launched attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
About 90,000 Iranian-born people live in Australia.
Two men have been charged over the December attack that set ablaze the synagogue, built in the 1960s by Holocaust survivors in the suburb of Ripponlea.
Last week, police in the southeastern state of Victoria said they were examining electronic devices seized in a search of the home of one of the men, who is set to appear in court on Wednesday.
Police say three people broke into the synagogue and set the fire.
Fire gutted the kosher restaurant in Bondi, Lewis Continental Kitchen. Media said the man arrested in January over that attack had links to a well-known Australian motorcycle gang. He denied the charges in court and was freed on bail.
(Reporting by Christine Chen, Renju Jose and Kirstry Needham; Writing by Saad Sayeed; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Clarence Fernandez)
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