Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Tuesday that the country's intelligence service (ASIO) concluded Iran's Revolutionary Guards were behind at least two antisemitic attacks against Jewish centers in the country, part of an unprecedented wave of antisemitism since the war began.
In response to the intelligence findings, Albanese announced dramatic measures, including expelling the Iranian ambassador from Australia, closing the Australian embassy in Tehran, and advancing the designation of the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. This marks the first time Australia has expelled a foreign ambassador since World War II.
The tensions come at a time when relations between Jerusalem and Canberra are at their most strained, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing Albanese of fueling antisemitism after recognizing a Palestinian state. Australia banned MK Simcha Rothman from entering the country, and Israel's Foreign Ministry responded by canceling visas for Australian diplomats.
According to intelligence findings presented by Australian intelligence chief Mike Burgess, Iran was behind the arson attack on the kosher restaurant "Louis Continental Kitchen" in Sydney on October 20, 2024, and the torching of the "Adass Israel" synagogue in Melbourne on December 6. "It is likely that Iran is also responsible for additional attacks," Burgess added, referring to the unprecedented wave of antisemitic attacks that have struck the Jewish community since October 7. "Iran's actions are completely intolerable. They endangered lives, terrorized the community, and tore apart our social fabric," Burgess said. "Iran and its proxies literally lit the matches and fanned the flames."
Iran predictably denied any connection to the events. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei rejected the Australian claims, stating that "any inappropriate and unjustified action at the diplomatic level will provoke a mutual response." Baghaei further claimed that "the concept of antisemitism has no place in our culture, history, and religion. It is a Western and European phenomenon." The Iranian spokesman accused Australia of "projection" to create justification for its policies against Iran.
In a speech before the Australian House of Representatives, Albanese described how Iran operated to harm the Jewish community in the country. "Iran sought to disguise its involvement by using criminal elements who received payment here in Australia," the prime minister revealed.
Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, Australia has experienced a severe wave of antisemitism manifested in arsons, attacks against Jewish institutions, and other incidents.
In early July, the "East Melbourne" synagogue was set on fire while 20 worshippers were inside (leading to the arrest of a suspect of Iranian origin), and that same night, an Israeli restaurant ("The Pantry") was attacked in the city center.
In January, security forces found a caravan loaded with explosives in a suburb in northern Sydney, and even then, the possibility arose of foreign state involvement in the chain of events.
"Our investigation exposed and dismantled the connections between the crimes and key Revolutionary Guard commanders in Iran," explained Australian intelligence chief Mike Burgess. "They use various means, including people who are criminals and members of organized crime gangs, to carry out their will or direct their actions."
The events in Australia are just another link in a long chain in which Revolutionary Guard operatives activated local criminal elements in Western countries to attack Jewish and Israeli targets.
The most prominent recent use by Iranians of criminal elements is perhaps the case of the Swedish "Foxtrot" gang led by Rawa Majid, also known as "The Kurdish Fox." According to numerous reports and investigations, Majid fled from the law to Iran in September 2023, where he received asylum and agreed in return to operate his criminal networks in the service of Iranian intelligence.
A series of incidents have been attributed to this gang's activity, including placing a grenade at Israel's embassy in Stockholm in January 2024, shooting at the embassy in May, throwing grenades at Israel's embassy in Brussels, throwing two hand grenades near Israel's embassy in Copenhagen in October 2024, and placing explosive devices near Elbit offices in Gothenburg. The investigation, which also led to several arrests, exposed "Foxtrot's" method of recruiting minors, paying paltry sums, and using encrypted applications without direct contact with handlers.
A CNN investigation revealed the depth of cynicism in recruiting minors. In recorded conversations intercepted by Swedish police, the brother of a 14-year-old boy who shot at Israel's embassy was heard saying in shock, "I thought he would shoot once, get scared and run." The brother added, "So they thought it was a terrorist attack, brother. He's labeled as a terrorist... it was said on the news."
This is an almost routine phenomenon. In early July, a Danish citizen was arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran to gather intelligence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Berlin. In May, a terror cell operating on Iran's behalf was arrested in Britain in public arrests due to an immediate threat to attack the Israeli embassy or opposition media outlet Iran International.
In a comprehensive report published last July, the British Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee warned that Iran poses a "growing and unpredictable" threat to Britain, noting a "sharp rise" in physical threats against regime opponents. Committee Chairman Lord Beamish noted that "Iran has a high risk appetite when conducting offensive activity, and its intelligence services are well-equipped in significant areas of asymmetric power."
Across the ocean, two mafia members were convicted in New York last March of attempting to murder exiled Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad on behalf of the Tehran regime. Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov were recruited to carry out the assassination for $500,000 (1.6M ILS). A third partner in the plot, Khalid Mehdiyev, was arrested in July 2022 in Brooklyn with a Kalashnikov rifle and ski mask. The prosecutor in the case defined the defendants as "hired killers for the Iranian government."
These are just selected examples; the scope of Iranian activity is quite extensive.
Beyond this, one must note Revolutionary Guard activity in Latin America and certain areas in Africa, where they exploit characteristics like the Shiite diaspora and countries friendly to Tehran to utilize criminal or "gray" infrastructure for their purposes. Additional aspects are Hezbollah networks, which were also caught in Barcelona and other European cities during the war.
Danny Citrinowicz, who headed the Iran branch in the Research Division and is currently a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, explains that this is a known method that serves the Iranians in their perception of "closing the equation" with Israel, even through harming the Jewish community. "The Iranian concept – we saw it in Cyprus, Greece, Brazil, Turkey – is the idea of using crime gangs as perpetrators of attacks to distance Iran from responsibility for the events."
Citrinowicz explains that what led to the change in method was the heavy diplomatic price Iran paid after the attack on the Israeli embassy in 1992 and the Jewish community headquarters (AMIA) bombing in 1994 in Buenos Aires. "What happened is that the Iranians paid a very heavy price for the Argentina story. It's a significant diplomatic price. It's a tool they still want to use, but they're very afraid of its implications."
According to him, using criminal organizations creates a "buffer" supposed to protect Iran from direct responsibility, but this is also reflected in the "results" the Iranians achieve. "Their problem is that in the end, these are criminal organizations – they're more amateurish. The likelihood they'll carry out what the Iranians want is lower, and they're also more penetrable. And even when it works out, it's not perfect, and in most cases, it's quite amateurish. They think it distances them from the event, but look at the Swedes, the Brazilians, the Australians – everyone knows it's the Iranians. That's their problem – they have no other option."
