The Iranian government directed at least two anti-Semitic attacks against Australia’s Jewish community, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday.
Aug. 26 The Iranian government directed at least two anti-Semitic attacks against Australia’s Jewish community, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday, prompting Canberra to expel the Iranian ambassador to the Pacific nation, recall its own envoys and sever all diplomatic ties with the Tehran regime.
«These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil», Albanese said during a press conference. «They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community. It is totally unacceptable and the Australian government is taking strong and decisive action in response.»
Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, there have been several high-profile anti-Semitic incidents in Australia. On Tuesday, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization announced that at least two of them but likely more were directed by Iran, specifically December’s Adass Israel Synagogue arson attack in Melbourne and October’s arson attack on Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney.
Albanese described the intelligence accusing Iran as «credible.» Iran tried to obfuscate its involvement, but ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess said in a statement it was able to uncover and unpick «links between the alleged crimes and commanders in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
