OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
6:14 PM – Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused Iran on Tuesday of orchestrating two antisemitic attacks on Australian soil last year. He announced that Canberra, the capital of Australia, would be severing all diplomatic ties with Tehran in response.
Albanese noted that the Australian Security Intelligence Organization had determined that Iran’s government directed arson attacks against the Lewis Continental Kitchen, a kosher food company in Sydney, in October 2024, and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne two months later.
After the news was first announced, Tehran denied any involvement. In response, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei declared that Tehran “absolutely” rejects the allegations and he threatened that any “inappropriate and unjustified action on a diplomatic level will have a reciprocal reaction.”
The allegations come amid a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in Sydney and Melbourne since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Local authorities have previously warned that foreign governments may be contracting local criminals to stage attacks inside Australia.
Police have already arrested multiple suspects in connection with the arson attacks, including one linked to the Sydney café fire and two charged in relation to the Melbourne synagogue blaze.
In Sydney, 32-year-old Sayed Mohammed Moosawi — a former chapter president of the “Nomads motorcycle gang” — has been charged with orchestrating the firebombing of the Lewis Continental Kitchen, as well as the nearby Curly Lewis Brewery, which was “mistakenly targeted” in an earlier attack, Aussie authorities say.
In Melbourne, police last month also charged 21-year-old Giovanna Laulu as one of three masked men accused of torching the Adass Israel Synagogue in December. A second suspect, a 20-year-old unidentified man from Melbourne, is due in court in Wednesday. Authorities have not released his name.
“ASIO has now gathered enough credible intelligence to reach a deeply disturbing conclusion,” Albanese told reporters. “The Iranian government directed at least two of these attacks. Iran has sought to disguise its involvement but ASIO assesses it was behind the attacks.
“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” he said. “They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community. It is totally unacceptable.”
Just before the announcement, Prime Minister Albanese announced that the government had already informed Iran’s ambassador to Australia, Ahmad Sadeghi, that he would be expelled. Canberra pulled its diplomats out of Tehran soon after, relocating them to a third country.
Additionally, an updated travel alert noted the embassy’s closure and urged Australians in Iran to “strongly consider leaving as soon as possible, if it is safe to do so.”
“Foreigners in Iran, including Australians and dual Australian-Iranian nationals, are at a high risk of arbitrary detention or arrest,” the advisory warned.
Australia also raised its travel warning for Iran to the highest level, warning residents to refrain from traveling there for any reason.
Iran has long been accused of detaining foreign nationals, including dual citizens, as leverage in negotiations with Western governments.
Following the PM’s announcement, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong affirmed that Canberra would maintain limited diplomatic channels with Tehran to safeguard Australia’s “interests,” and she highlighted that it was the first time the country felt the need to expel an ambassador since World War II.
Albanese continued, explaining that Australia plans to “legislate” to formally list Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.
Under Australian law, providing support to a listed terrorist group is a criminal offense. The government has previously resisted calls to designate the Revolutionary Guard under existing terrorism legislation, citing its status as a government entity.
The Iranian paramilitary force has long been accused of carrying out attacks abroad, though it broadly denies involvement. The United States formally designated the Revolutionary Guard a foreign terrorist organization in 2019 AS well, during the first Trump administration — accusing it of not only facilitating but directly perpetrating acts of terrorism.
A spokesperson for the Executive Council of Australian Jewry welcomed Australia’s planned designation, saying the group was “outraged” that a foreign actor was behind the attacks.
“Foremost, these were attacks that deliberately targeted Jewish Australians, destroyed a sacred house of worship, caused millions of dollars of damage, and terrified our community,” the statement said.
The decision to cut ties with Iran comes a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Albanese a “weak politician who had betrayed Israel” over his recognition of Palestinian state.
Some analysts noted that Albanese had previously resisted calls to expel Iran’s envoy to Canberra, including in 2024, when Ahmad Sadeghi was summoned for meetings with foreign ministry officials over his social media posts.
Nonetheless, after being questioned by reporters, Michael Shoebridge, a former Australian defense and security official and director of the think-tank Strategic Analysis Australia, expressed that he does not believe the move was a response to Israel’s criticisms.
“I don’t think that’s a matter of Australia-Israel relations, but a matter of community cohesion here in Australia,” he stated.
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