Overview

• ASIO assessed that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps directed at least two antisemitic attacks: an arson attack on Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney and the firebombing of Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue in late 2024.
• Foreign Minister Penny Wong declared Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi persona non grata, ordering him and three colleagues to depart within seven days in Australia’s first ambassadorial expulsion since World War II.
• Canberra suspended operations at its embassy in Tehran and moved Australian diplomats to a third country, while advising Australians in Iran to leave as consular help is now extremely limited.
• The government will introduce legislation to list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, with officials noting new laws are required because the IRGC is a state entity.
• ASIO says more attacks were likely directed by Iran and that investigations continue; officials described a “complex web of proxies” and said no Iranian diplomats in Australia were involved, with no injuries reported and two men charged over the Melbourne synagogue attack.