Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media throughout a press convention at Parliament Home in Canberra, Australia, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025.
Lukas Coch/AAP Picture through AP
cover caption
toggle caption
Lukas Coch/AAP Picture through AP
MELBOURNE, Australia — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused Iran of organizing two antisemitic assaults in Australia and stated the nation was chopping off diplomatic relations with Tehran in response on Tuesday.
The Australian Safety Intelligence Group concluded the Iranian authorities had directed arson assaults on the Lewis Continental Kitchen, a kosher meals firm, in Sydney in October final yr and on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne in December final yr, Albanese stated.
Iran’s authorities had no rapid response.
Australian intelligence says Iran was behind arson assaults
There was a steep rise in antisemitic incidents in Sydney and Melbourne because the Israel-Hamas conflict started in 2023.
Australian authorities have beforehand stated they believe that overseas actors are paying native criminals-for-hire to hold out assaults within the nation.
Police have already arrested at the least one suspect within the Sydney cafe hearth investigation and two suspects immediately accused of torching the Melbourne synagogue.
“ASIO has now gathered enough credible intelligence to reach a deeply disturbing conclusion,” Albanese informed 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 have been extraordinary and harmful acts of aggression orchestrated by a overseas nation on Australian soil,” he said. “They have been makes an attempt to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our group. It’s completely 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 contemplate leaving as quickly as attainable, whether it is protected to take action.”
“Foreigners in Iran, together with Australians and twin Australian-Iranian nationals, are at a excessive danger of arbitrary detention or arrest,” the warning learn.
Australia up to date its warning to vacationers to its highest degree: “Do not travel” to Iran.
Iran has a protracted historical past of detaining Westerners or these with ties overseas to make use of as bargaining chips in negotiations.
International Minister Penny Wong stated that Canberra would hold some diplomatic strains open to Tehran to advance Australia’s pursuits. She added that it was the primary time Australia has expelled an envoy since World Warfare II.
Albanese goals to declare Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group
Albanese stated that Australia will legislate to listing Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has been accused of finishing up assaults overseas over the many years of its existence, although it broadly denies any involvement. The Guard’s Quds, or Jerusalem, Pressure is its expeditionary arm and is accused by Western nations of utilizing native militants and criminals up to now to focus on dissidents and Israelis overseas.
A spokesperson for the Government Council of Australian Jewry welcomed the terrorist designation for the Revolutionary Guard, including in a press release that the group was “outraged” {that a} overseas 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 assertion stated.
For the reason that outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict, Israel has arrested a number of individuals on expenses that they had been paid or inspired by Iran to hold out vandalism and monitor potential targets there.
The transfer towards Iran got here every 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 got here after an Aug. 11 announcement by Albanese that his authorities’s recognition of a Palestinian state shall be formalized on the United Nations Normal Meeting in September. The announcement was adopted by tit-for-tat cancellations of visas for Australian and Israeli officers.
Australia says Iran helped escalate antisemitic incidents
Neither ASIO director-general Mike Burgess nor Albanese defined what proof there was of Iranian involvement.
Burgess stated no Iranian diplomats in Australia have been concerned.
“This was directed by the IRGC through a series of overseas cut-out facilitators to coordinators that found their way to tasking Australians,” Burgess stated.
Whereas antisemitic incidents elevated in Australian after the Israel-Hamas conflict started on Oct. 7 2023, Iran was answerable for a transition in October final yr when the violence extra immediately focused individuals, companies and place of worship,” Burgess said.
“Iran began the primary of these,” Burgess stated.
