Australia to Label IRGC as Terror Group, Expel Iran's Ambassador After Tehran Implicated in Antisemitic Attacks
The attacks orchestrated by Iran highlight its global terror network targeting Jewish communities through local proxies
Australia has expelled Iran's ambassador and three diplomatic staff after Australia's Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) linked Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to antisemitic arson attacks targeting Jewish establishments across the country, marking the nation's first diplomatic expulsion since World War II and highlighting a broader pattern of Iranian-sponsored attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets internationally.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that ASIO had connected the IRGC to two separate attacks in 2024: the October firebombing of Lewis' Continental Kitchen, a decades-old kosher restaurant near Sydney's Bondi Beach, and the December arson attack on Melbourne's Adass Israel Synagogue, where masked perpetrators set the building ablaze.
Additionally, Jewish Onliner identified that Iran's embassy in Australia had been promoting extremist messaging on social media, including posts commemorating former leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, and threatening "crushing revenge" against Israel, all while Iranian operatives conducted attacks on Australian soil.
Seven-Day Departure Order and Embassy Closure
Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and his diplomatic team have been given seven days to leave the country, while the government has suspended embassy operations in Tehran and advised Australian citizens to immediately leave Iran for their safety.
"These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil," Albanese stated, emphasizing that Iran had deliberately targeted Jewish Australians to "harm and terrify" the community and "sow hatred and division."
Intelligence Operation Details and Criminal Network Connections
ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess revealed that the attacks were coordinated through multiple intermediaries, describing the operation as "directed by the IRGC through a series of overseas cut-out facilitators to coordinators" who ultimately recruited local perpetrators. Australia has also decided that it will formally designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization, as the United States did in 2019.
Intelligence sources have identified Melbourne criminal kingpin Kazem Hamad as a suspected conspirator in the synagogue firebombing, with evidence suggesting he worked with foreign operatives to facilitate the attack. In the months following the initial investigation, counterterrorism officials gathered additional intelligence pointing to Hamad's deeper involvement, including financial payments that were traced back through the network of intermediaries used by Iranian handlers.
International Pattern of IRGC-Linked Terror Operations
The revelations fit within a broader pattern of Iranian-sponsored attacks across Western nations. In Sweden, Iran has pressured local criminal gangs including the Foxtrot Network to carry out attacks against U.S. and Israeli interests.
The Foxtrot Network, a transnational criminal organization primarily based in Sweden, allegedly orchestrated an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm in January 2024 on behalf of the Iranian government.
The U.S. Treasury sanctioned the network and its fugitive leader Rawa Majid in March 2025, noting the organization's dual role in drug trafficking and executing attacks on Israelis and Jews across Europe.
Extensive Embassy Social Media Activity Expressing Support for Terrorism
Jewish Onliner identified that Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and the Iranian Embassy's official X accounts repeatedly commemorated eliminated terrorist commanders, raising questions about their diplomatic conduct.
On the day of Hamas's October 7 massacre against Israel, Sadeghi posted a tribute honoring Qassem Soleimani, the former IRGC-Quds Force general eliminated by a U.S. drone strike in January 2020 during President Trump's first term. Soleimani was directly responsible for targeting, injuring, and killing hundreds of American civilians and military personnel through proxy operations across the Middle East.
A particularly concerning post saw Sadeghi praise Hamas's "#alaqsastorm" attack and honor Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yasin, who had declared that "wiping out the Zionist plague from the holy lands of Palestine" would happen no later than 2027.
Similarly, in January 2023, the Iranian Embassy promoted a virtual exhibition glorifying Soleimani as an "international hero," further demonstrating their support for designated terrorist operatives.
The embassy's posts escalated to include threatening language following Israeli military operations. In December 2023, after Israel eliminated former IRGC general Sayyed Razi Mousavi in Damascus, the Iranian Embassy in Australia published a commemorative post declaring: "The crushing revenge will come soon."
Visual displays of support for terrorist organizations were also documented through the embassy's social media channels. Following the eliminations of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the Iranian embassy published photographs showing their facility's flags lowered to half-mast in mourning. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are formally designated as terrorist organizations by the Australian government. Additionally, both Sadeghi and the embassy posted long commemorative posts for Nasrallah.
Government Response and Safety Warnings
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke characterized Iran's actions as reaching "a new and totally unacceptable low," while Foreign Minister Penny Wong warned that Australia's ability to protect citizens in Iran would be "extremely limited" going forward.
The expulsion represents a significant escalation in Australia-Iran relations and underscores growing international concern over Tehran's use of proxy networks and criminal organizations to conduct terrorism operations on foreign soil, while simultaneously using diplomatic channels to promote extremist messaging and threaten retaliatory violence.