In a dramatic escalation of diplomatic tensions, Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador and three other officials on August 26, 2025, accusing Tehran of orchestrating two antisemitic arson attacks in Sydney and Melbourne over the past year. The move marks the first time Canberra has expelled an ambassador since World War II, underscoring the gravity of the allegations and the rapidly deteriorating relationship between the two nations.
The accusations center on two incidents that shook Australia’s Jewish community. In October 2024, a kosher restaurant in Bondi, Sydney—Lewis Continental Kitchen—was set ablaze, and in December, the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne’s Ripponlea suburb was targeted in a major arson attack. Miraculously, no one was injured in either attack, but the damage was extensive, amounting to millions of dollars and leaving a community rattled. According to Reuters, the synagogue had been built in the 1960s by Holocaust survivors, adding a layer of historical pain to the crime.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, addressing the press on Tuesday, did not mince words: “These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil. They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community.” He further asserted that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) had gathered credible intelligence linking Iran directly to the attacks, and that further investigations were underway into possible additional incidents tied to Tehran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Albanese announced that his government would legislate to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization, joining the ranks of the United States and Canada, which have already blacklisted the group. “The government will legislate to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, as a terrorist organisation,” he said, according to Al Jazeera. The ASIO is also investigating whether the IRGC played a role in other anti-Jewish attacks since the Israel-Gaza conflict erupted in October 2023.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong declared the Iranian ambassador, Ahmad Sadeghi, and three other Iranian officials “persona non grata,” giving them seven days to leave the country. “Iran’s actions are completely unacceptable,” Wong stated at the briefing, as reported by Reuters. Australia also withdrew its own ambassador to Iran and suspended operations at its embassy in Tehran, which had been open since 1968. All Australian diplomats were confirmed safe in a third country as of the announcement.
Iran responded swiftly and forcefully. Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, “absolutely rejected” Australia’s accusations and promised reciprocal diplomatic action. “Any inappropriate and unjustified action on a diplomatic level will have a reciprocal reaction,” he warned, according to Al Jazeera. He further suggested that the Australian government’s measures were “influenced by internal developments,” such as the massive pro-Palestine protests that swept across the country the previous weekend—described by organizers as the largest in Australia’s history.
Baghaei also argued that Australia’s actions seemed designed “to compensate for the limited criticism the Australian side has directed at the Zionist regime [Israel],” implying that the expulsions were politically motivated. Foad Izadi, a professor at the University of Tehran, told Al Jazeera that Ambassador Sadeghi had been “vocal in his support for the Palestinian cause,” suggesting that his expulsion was linked more to political pressure than to evidence. “Expelling a country’s ambassador is rarely done, and the fact that the Australian government has done this is an indication that … they’re afraid of their own population and they’re afraid of the demands this population [makes] when it comes to the issue of genocide in Palestine,” Izadi said.
Australia’s Jewish community leaders welcomed the government’s decisive action. Daniel Aghian, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), called the attacks “deliberate” and said they “destroyed a sacred house of worship, caused millions of dollars of damage, and terrified our community.” He added, as quoted by Reuters, “These were attacks that deliberately targeted Jewish Australians.” The Israeli embassy in Australia also praised the move, stating, “Iran’s regime is not only a threat to Jews or Israel, it endangers the entire free world, including Australia.” Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told reporters in Israel: “For the Australian government to take those threats seriously is a positive outcome.”
Investigations into the attacks have yielded some arrests. Two men have been charged in connection with the December 2024 synagogue fire, with Victorian police examining electronic devices seized from one suspect’s home. The man is set to appear in court this week. In the Sydney restaurant attack, a suspect arrested in January 2025 was reportedly linked to a well-known Australian motorcycle gang, though he has denied the charges and was released on bail.
Australia’s security chief, Mike Burgess, said the IRGC had been directing people in Australia to undertake crimes, often using “cut-outs, including people who are criminals and members of organised crime gangs to do their bidding or direct their bidding.” This tactic, he noted, mirrors warnings from security services in Britain and Sweden, which have accused Tehran of using criminal proxies to carry out violent attacks in Europe.
The Australian Iranian Community Organisation, representing about 90,000 Iranian-born Australians, welcomed the expulsion and the decision to designate the IRGC as a terrorist group. “We are really happy to see them go,” said its president, Siamak Ghahreman, in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The diplomatic crisis comes at a time of heightened tension in Australia over the Israel-Gaza war. Since October 2023, antisemitic vandalism and arson have surged, targeting homes, schools, synagogues, and vehicles. Islamophobic incidents have also spiked, with the Islamophobia Register reporting a 500% increase in complaints in workplaces, universities, and media since the conflict began, totaling 1,500 incidents. The ECAJ has warned that nationwide pro-Palestinian rallies—most recently involving tens of thousands marching across Sydney’s Harbour Bridge—have created an “unsafe environment” for Jewish Australians. Yet, some Jewish organizations have supported the rallies, highlighting the complex and often divisive nature of the issue.
Australia’s relationship with Israel has also come under strain. The center-left government’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly on August 11, 2025, was a significant diplomatic shift, drawing sharp rebukes from Israeli officials. Last week, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Albanese a “weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews.” In response, Australia’s Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke shot back, saying that strength was not measured “by how many people you can blow up or how many children you can leave hungry.”
As both Iran and Australia brace for further diplomatic fallout, with Tehran promising reciprocal measures and Canberra standing firm, the crisis highlights the increasingly global stakes of the Middle East conflict and the challenges of protecting multicultural harmony at home. The coming weeks will reveal whether this rupture is temporary or the start of a more profound realignment in Australia’s foreign policy and domestic security posture.
