Iran’s government was behind an arson attack on a cafe in Sydney in October last year and another on a synagogue in Melbourne in December, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Albanese said the two attacks were “attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community”.
The ambassador, Ahmad Sadeghi, and three other officials were ordered to leave Australia, which has withdrawn its own diplomats from Tehran.
Iran has not yet responded.
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) chief Mike Burgess said Iran had “sought to disguise its involvement” in the attack on the Lewis Continental Kitchen in Sydney on October 20 and Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue on December 6.
“They’re just using cut-outs, including people who are criminals and members of organised crime gangs to do their bidding or direct their bidding,” Burgess told reporters.
Intelligence services had also determined Iran was likely to be responsible for a number of other antisemitic incidents in Australia, which has seen attacks on Jewish schools, homes, vehicles and synagogues since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.
Hamas is an ally of Iran, which is also blamed by the Australian government for numerous cyber attacks and threats to Australian soil.
In the same period, a civil society group the Islamophobic Register has recorded a rise in Islamophobic incidents.
Police had first indicated they were investigating whether attacks on Jewish-linked property were being directed by “overseas actors or individuals” in January.
But the findings, provided by security services and revealed on Tuesday, were “deeply disturbing”, Albanese said, labelling the two incidents “extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression”.
In the second case, worshippers had to flee the synagogue as the fire took hold. The building had been built by Holocaust survivors in the 1960s.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said this was the first time since World War Two that Australia had expelled an ambassador.
Wong said Australia would continue to maintain some diplomatic lines with Tehran but had suspended operations at its embassy in Iran for the safety of staff.
She also called on Australians not to travel to Iran and urged any citizens in the country to leave if it was safe to do so.
Albanese said his government would also make good on an election pledge to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.
Israel’s embassy in Canberra has welcomed the moves against Iran, which Israel fought a 12-day war with in June.
“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.
