‘Deeply Disturbing’: Prime Minister Announces They’re Banning Iran’s Ambassador

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Monday that his government is cutting diplomatic ties with Iran after intelligence officials linked Tehran to two antisemitic attacks on Australian soil.

Albanese said the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) uncovered evidence that Iran directed assaults in 2024 on a Sydney kosher restaurant and a Melbourne synagogue. Days earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Albanese of having “betrayed” and “abandoned” Israel and the Australian Jewish community.

“Enough credible intelligence has now been gathered to reach the deeply disturbing conclusion that the Iranian Government has directed at least two of these attacks,” Albanese said in a statement. “These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil. This is an attack on our society, aimed at creating fear, stoking internal divisions and eroding social cohesion.”

ASIO found the Iranian government had directed arson attacks on the Lewis Continental Kitchen, a kosher food company, in Sydney last October and on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne in December, Albanese said.

As part of the response, Australia is expelling Iran’s ambassador and relocating its own diplomats stationed in Tehran to a third country, Albanese said. The government also plans to formally designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. (Read more from “‘Deeply Disturbing’: Prime Minister Announces They’re Banning Iran’s Ambassador” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr