Australia accuses Iran of organizing antisemitic attacks and expels
ambassador
[August 26, 2025]
By ROD McGUIRK
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
accused Iran of organizing two antisemitic attacks in Australia and said
the country was cutting off diplomatic relations with Tehran in response
on Tuesday.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organization concluded the Iranian
government had directed arson attacks on the Lewis Continental Kitchen,
a kosher food company, in Sydney in October last year and on the Adass
Israel Synagogue in Melbourne in December last year, Albanese said.
Iran’s government denied the allegations.
Australian intelligence says Iran was behind arson attacks
There has been a steep rise in antisemitic incidents in Sydney and
Melbourne since the Israel-Hamas war began in 2023.
Australian authorities have previously said they suspect that foreign
actors are paying local criminals-for-hire to carry out attacks in the
country.
Police have already arrested at least one suspect in the Sydney cafe
fire investigation and two suspects directly accused of torching the
Melbourne synagogue.
Police have already arrested at least one suspect in the Sydney cafe
fire investigation and two suspects directly accused of torching the
Melbourne synagogue.
Sayed Mohammed Moosawi, a 32-year-old Sydney-based former chapter
president of the Nomads biker gang, has been charged with directing the
fire bombings of the Sydney café as well as the nearby Curly Lewis
Brewery. The brewery was apparently confused for the café and mistakenly
targeted three days earlier for an antisemitic attack.
Giovanna Laulu, a 21-year-old man from Melbourne, was charged last month
with being one of three masked arsonists who caused extensive damage to
the synagogue in December.
A second alleged arsonist, a 20-year-old man also from Melbourne, is
expected to appear in court Wednesday, a police statement said. He has
not been publicly named.
“ASIO has now gathered enough credible intelligence to reach a deeply
disturbing conclusion,” Albanese told reporters. “The Iranian government
directed at least two of these attacks. Iran has sought to disguise its
involvement but ASIO assesses it was behind the attacks.
“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated
by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” he said. “They were attempts to
undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community. It is
totally unacceptable.”
Australia breaks off diplomatic relations and warns citizens in Iran
Shortly before the announcement, the Australian government told Iran’s
Ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi that he will be expelled. It also
withdrew Australian diplomats posted in Iran to a third country,
Albanese said.
An alert to Australians in Iran noted the embassy’s closure and urged
them to “strongly consider leaving as soon as possible, if it is safe to
do so.”
“Foreigners in Iran, including Australians and dual Australian-Iranian
nationals, are at a high risk of arbitrary detention or arrest,” the
warning read.
Australia updated its warning to travelers to its highest level: “Do not
travel” to Iran.
Iran has a long history of detaining Westerners or those with ties
abroad to use as bargaining chips in negotiations.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that Canberra would keep some
diplomatic lines open to Tehran to advance Australia’s interests. She
added that it was the first time Australia has expelled an ambassador
since World War II.
Albanese aims to declare Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist
organization
Albanese said that Australia will legislate to list Iran’s Revolutionary
Guard as a terrorist organization.
Australia’s law makes providing support to a listed terrorist
organization a crime.
The government has previously rejected calls to list the Revolutionary
Guard under existing terrorism laws because it is a government entity.
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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media
during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra,
Australia, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (Lukas Coch/AAP Image via AP)
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has been accused of carrying
out attacks abroad over the decades of its existence, though it
broadly denies any involvement. The Guard’s Quds, or Jerusalem,
Force is its expeditionary arm and is accused by Western nations of
using local militants and criminals in the past to target dissidents
and Israelis abroad.
A spokesperson for the Executive Council of Australian Jewry
welcomed the terrorist designation for the Revolutionary Guard,
adding in a statement that the group was “outraged” that a foreign
actor was behind the crimes.
“Foremost, these were attacks that deliberately targeted Jewish
Australians, destroyed a sacred house of worship, caused millions of
dollars of damage, and terrified our community,” the statement said.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, Israel has arrested
several people on charges they had been paid or encouraged by Iran
to carry out vandalism and monitor potential targets there.
Iran denies the allegations
Iran denied Australia’s allegations through its Foreign Ministry
spokesman Esmail Baghaei, who tried to link it to the challenges
Australia faced with Israel after announcing it would recognize 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,”
Baghaei claimed.
The move against Iran came a week after Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu branded Albanese a "weak politician who had
betrayed Israel” by recognizing a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu’s extraordinary public rebuke on social media came after
an Aug. 11 announcement by Albanese that his government’s
recognition of a Palestinian state will be formalized at the United
Nations General Assembly in September. That announcement was
followed by tit-for-tat cancellations of visas for Australian and
Israeli officials.
Albanese previously resisted calls to expel Iran's envoy to Canberra
before, analysts said, including in 2024 when Sadeghi was summoned
for meetings with foreign ministry officials over his social media
posts.
Michael Shoebridge, a former Australian defense and security
official and director of the think tank Strategic Analysis
Australia, said he didn’t believe the move was prompted by Israel's
complaints.
“I don’t think that’s a matter of Australia-Israel relations, but a
matter of community cohesion here in Australia,” he said.
Australia says Iran helped escalate antisemitic incidents
Neither ASIO director-general Mike Burgess nor Albanese explained
what evidence there was of Iranian involvement.
Burgess said no Iranian diplomats in Australia were involved.
“This was directed by the IRGC through a series of overseas cut-out
facilitators to coordinators that found their way to tasking
Australians,” Burgess said.
While antisemitic incidents increased in Australian after the
Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7 2023, Iran was responsible for a
transition in October last year when the violence more directly
targeted people, businesses and places of worship, Burgess said.
“Iran started the first of those,” Burgess said.
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