Australia shows Iran’s ambassador for arson attacks

Australia accuses Iran of having controlled two anti -Semitic arson attacks in Sydney and Melbourne, and has therefore shown Tehran’s ambassador.

The diplomat and three other Iranian officials would have seven days to leave the country, said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday. It was the first expulsion of a envoy by Australia since World War II.

“These are extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression that were orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” said Albanese. “There were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow in our community.” Iran rejected the allegations.

The Australian secret service ASIO collected credible information that Iran had controlled at least two attacks, Albanese said. Iran tried to disguise his participation in the attacks on a kosher restaurant in Sydney and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne last year. His government will also classify the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) of Iran as a terrorist organization. Foreign Minister Penny Wong called Iran’s approach “completely unacceptable”.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards had instructed people in Australia to commit crimes, said the general director of the secret service, Mike Burgess. “They simply use straw men, including criminals and members of organized gangs of criminals, to carry out or forward their commands.” According to Burgess, the revolutionary guards used a complex network of deputies to disguise their participation. “I warned of this type of border administration at the beginning of the year,” he said.

The Australian embassy in Tehran hired its work, and all employees were safe in a third country. Wong called Australians to leave Iran and not travel to the country.

The Israeli embassy in Australia welcomed the procedure. The regime of Iran is a danger to the whole world, it said in an explanation. Daniel Aghian, President of the Executive Council of Australian Judaism (ECAJ), spoke of an attack on the sovereignty of Australia. The attacks would have been specifically directed against Jewish Australians.

Iran has already announced a reaction. The allegations are completely baseless, said foreign office spokesman Ismail Baghai to journalists, as the Tasnim news agency reported. His ministry is already preparing a corresponding reaction. Anti -Semitism has no place in Islam, said Baghai. “This concept is a western invention and you have to answer for your historical past.”

A synagogue caught fire in the attacks in which no one was injured in December. In addition, a kosher restaurant in Sydney was destroyed in a fire. Two men were charged with the attack on the synagogue, another because of the attack on the restaurant.

Since the beginning of the Gaza War in October 2023, anti-Semitic smearings and arson have increased in Australia. The tensions between Iran and Israel are still great. In June, the two countries waged a twelve -day air war after Israel attacked Iranian nuclear facilities.

Relations between Australia and Israel have also been tense since the center-left government in Canberra recognized a Palestinian state on August 11th.

The Gaza war started almost two years ago after an attack by the radical Islamic Hamas on Israel. According to the Palestinian authorities, more than 60,000 people in Gaza have been killed in the conflict. At the same time, the civil society organization Islamophobia Register has recorded an increase in Islam, anti -Islam since October 2023 in Australia.