LONDON — Australian officials on Tuesday said they would expel Iran’s ambassador after accusing Tehran of directing antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne last year.
Australia’s intelligence agency, ASIO, said it determined Iran was behind attacks on Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney on Oct. 20 and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on Dec. 6, according to government officials.
“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters during a press conference in Canberra on Tuesday, according to an official transcript.
ASIO in a statement said intelligence officers had “uncovered and unpicked” links between the attacks and commanders in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, accusing the Iranian military of using a “complex web of proxies” to hide its involvement in the attacks in Australia.
Australia’s legislators will seek to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization, Albanese said.
“ASIO now assesses the Iranian Government directed at least two and likely more attacks on Jewish interests in Australia,” Director-General of Security Mike Burgess said in a statement.
Operations at the Australian embassy in Tehran were suspended, Albanese said, adding that Australian diplomats left the country. Iranian diplomatic staff in Australia weren’t involved in directing the attacks, Burgess said.
Australian Foreign Minister Peggy Wong said the alleged acts of aggression by Iran had “have crossed a line.”
“This is the first time in the post-war period that Australia has expelled an ambassador,” Wong said. “And we have made this decision because Iran’s actions are completely unacceptable.”
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