At Sydney Airport on Thursday evening, the scene was tense yet oddly cordial as Iran’s ambassador to Australia, Ahmad Sadeghi, made his final exit from the country. With cameras rolling and reporters from local networks Nine and Seven pressing him for comment, Sadeghi stood his ground, denouncing the accusations that led to his expulsion as nothing more than “baseless allegations and lies.” But despite the diplomatic storm swirling around him, he managed a smile and a wave, saying simply, “I love Australian people, bye bye.”
His departure, ordered by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday, marked a watershed moment for Australian foreign policy—the first expulsion of an ambassador from the country since World War II, according to Reuters and the Associated Press. The government’s move came after the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) concluded that Iran’s paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had orchestrated two antisemitic arson attacks in Australia late last year: one on the Lewis Continental Kitchen, a kosher restaurant in Sydney’s Bondi, in October 2024, and another on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne two months later. Miraculously, no injuries were reported in either attack.
Prime Minister Albanese, speaking at a Tuesday press conference, didn’t mince words. “The Australian Security Intelligence Organization has now gathered enough intelligence to reach a deeply disturbing conclusion that the Iranian government directed at least two of these attacks,” he said, as reported by UPI and The Times of Israel. Albanese revealed he had been personally briefed by ASIO on evidence linking the attacks to offshore individuals and Tehran’s IRGC, which allegedly used payments to local criminals as part of the plot.
Australia’s response was swift and severe. Sadeghi was given 72 hours to leave the country, and three other Iranian embassy officials were given seven days to pack their bags as well. The government also announced plans to formally designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization, joining the United States and Canada in blacklisting the powerful Iranian force.
Sadeghi, for his part, rejected the accusations outright. “These are all baseless allegations and lies,” he told reporters at the airport, echoing his earlier statements outside his Canberra residence where he said his farewells to local media. He argued that the charges stemmed from a “misunderstanding between Australia and Iran” or perhaps even “a conspiracy against our friendly relations with Australia,” according to The Guardian. Sadeghi also pointed out that Iran is home to a large Jewish community, seeking to counter the narrative that Tehran routinely sponsors antisemitic attacks abroad.
Despite the gravity of the situation, Sadeghi maintained a positive public tone, both in person and online. “Now that, with the successful completion of over [two] years of my mission full of positive achievements as the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Australia, I am heading towards my beloved, dear and proud country Iran,” he posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday. “I wish a successful future full of pride for the government and people of Iran,” he added, extending “independence and sovereign governance for the people of Australia.”
Australian intelligence officials, however, were adamant about the seriousness of the threat. ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said his agency had “credible intelligence” that the IRGC was not only behind the two arson attacks but likely responsible for more antisemitic acts on Australian soil. The attacks, authorities said, were planned and funded through a complex web of intermediaries, including organized crime figures. Still, Burgess clarified that no current Iranian diplomats or embassy staff in Australia were directly involved in the operational side of the attacks.
The decision to expel Sadeghi didn’t come out of the blue. The Iranian-Australian community, particularly the Australian Iranian Society of Victoria, had been calling for such action since 2022, following the Iranian regime’s crackdown on the women’s rights movement. “It is important for people to recognize that we, the Iranian diaspora, are opposed to what happens in Iran,” said Kambiz Razmara, vice president of the society, in comments reported by The Guardian. “The Iranian diaspora, by and large, are here because they’re seeking freedom and social cohesion and freedom of expression and democracy, so anything that tarnishes that we are resolutely against.”
But the fallout from the expulsion has not been limited to diplomatic circles. Community leaders have reported a spike in verbal abuse and intimidation directed at Australians of Iranian heritage. Many in the diaspora fear being unfairly associated with the actions of the Iranian government, even though, as Razmara emphasized, “we are resolutely against” such acts.
Security experts have warned that Australia should brace for potential retaliation from Tehran. David Andrews of the National Security College at the Australian National University told The Guardian that Canberra’s longstanding role as an intermediary for allies without a diplomatic presence in Tehran could now be at risk. “The risk of people being used as political pawns, or people who have either dual citizenship or Australians passing through Iran, could be used as a point of leverage or sort of in response to this action,” Andrews said. With an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Australians or dual citizens currently living in Iran, the Australian government’s “do not travel” warning for the country has taken on new urgency. The warning notes that Australian citizens could be subject to arbitrary detention—a risk that now seems more than theoretical.
The broader context for these events is a marked rise in antisemitic incidents in Sydney and Melbourne since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023. Australian authorities have previously suggested that foreign actors may be paying local criminals-for-hire to carry out attacks, a suspicion that appears to have been borne out by the ASIO investigation. However, neither Prime Minister Albanese nor ASIO’s Burgess has publicly detailed the specific evidence linking the IRGC to the attacks, citing the need to protect intelligence sources and methods.
Analysts also noted that Albanese had previously resisted calls to expel Iran’s envoy, including in 2024 when Sadeghi was summoned for meetings with foreign ministry officials over his social media activity. The government’s patience finally snapped, it seems, when intelligence officials presented what they described as a “deeply disturbing” conclusion that Tehran was actively orchestrating violence on Australian soil.
As Sadeghi’s plane took off from Sydney, the future of Australia-Iran relations hung in the balance. Few expect a quick thaw. “There’s no one who will be rushing to try and repair those ties too actively,” Andrews observed. For now, the expulsion stands as a stark signal that Canberra is willing to take unprecedented steps to defend its citizens and its values—even if it means upending decades of diplomatic tradition.
In the end, the episode has left both countries in uncharted waters, with Australia’s Iranian community caught in the crossfire and the specter of further retaliation looming. The only certainty is that this diplomatic rupture will be felt in both Canberra and Tehran for some time to come.