Australia accuses Iran of anti -Semitic attacks and shows ambassador: ‘Aggression will not be tolerated’

It is called a ‘new front line’: Iran would carry out anti -Semitic attacks in Australia via Proxy’s anti -Semitic attacks. The Australian intelligence service Asio stated on Tuesday that the country is behind an attack with a fire bomb on a synagogue in Melbourne, and behind an anti -Semitic attack on a kosher catering company in Sydney. Iran would then have tried to conceal his involvement.

“These are extremely dangerous acts of aggression on Australian soil, orchestrated by a foreign nation. They are attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow division in our community,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during a press conference. Iran has denied the accusations.

The Australian government has given the Iranian ambassador and three Iranian officials seven days to leave the country. It is the first time since the Second World War that Australia expands an ambassador to the country. The Australian government also decided to put the Iranian revolutionary guard on the list of terrorist organizations.

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In addition, Australia has closed its own embassy in Iran for the time being. All Australian embassy staff and diplomats have left Tehran and, according to Albanese, were evacuated to a third country before the revelations have been made public. The government has called on Australians in Iran to leave the country because of the risk of retaliation actions.

Criminal organization

The revelations are the work of a national police team, in collaboration with the security service that has been investigating for more than a year into increased anti -Semitic and Islamophobic incidents. More than one hundred and eighty people have been arrested under the name Operation Shelter since last year.

Is now the name released From one of the suspects. Kazem Hamad is a notorious leader of a criminal organization in Melbourne. Together with foreign spies, he would have organized the attack with a fire bomb on a synagogue in Melbourne. Hamad was born in Iran and runs its drug organization partly from Iran and Iraq. He would have taken the attack to get a white foot in Iran and were paid for it in crypto currency.

The revelations are probably just a tip of the veil. Mike Burgess, head of the Intelligence Service ASIO, does not exclude that Iran is involved in even more incidents. At the beginning of this year, a daycare center in Sydney was set on fire and painted with anti -Semitic slogans. At the beginning of January an abandoned caravan full of explosives was found in a suburb of Sydney, in which a list of Jewish targets has been found. Later the police announced that no real attack was being prepared here, but that there was one “Fake Terrorism Complot”to blackmail the police because of an ongoing criminal investigation, and to sow fear. “Iran has tried to disguise his involvement by paying criminal organizations in Australia to carry out the attacks. Iran is probably involved in even more attacks,” said Prime Minister Albanian.

Anti -Semitism and Muslim hatred

In Australia, the revelations were shocked. “We have not seen this before in Australia, but it is not new. Iran has been doing this for some time, also in other countries,” says Dara Conduitpolitical scientist at Melbourne University against the Australian public broadcaster ABC. In recent years it turned out that Tehran uses criminal networks in Europe and the United States to perform operations abroad. The Iranian intelligence service is also active in the Netherlands. “This is according to the Iranian playbookthis can do the country to ensure that Israel feels unsafe. It is shocking, but not surprising. “

According to the Iranian Playbook, this can do the country to ensure that Israel feels unsafe

It was already known that the Iranian National Guard has long tentacles. In 2023 it turned out an investigation By the Australian Senate that the Iranian diaspora is threatened and intimidated by Iran.

The fierce reaction of the Australian government receives broad support, in the country and in parliament, also in the opposition. He states that the government should have put the Iranian revolutionary guard on the terror list much earlier. But this step can also have negative consequences, for example for Australians who are in prison in Iran. “They will no longer be able to get consular help from the Australian embassy,” says Conduit.

Since the war in Gaza, tensions have increased in Australian society, where both Jewish and Islamic diaspora are great. According to the last census there are more than 800,000 people with an Islamic background in Australia and there are just under 120,000 Australian Jews in the country.

Both the number of anti -Semitic incidents and Muslim hatred have increased considerably. Houses, schools, synagogues and cars are regularly damaged with swastikas and anti -Semitic slogans. In addition, there is a sharp increase in the number of reports of Islamophobia; That has more than doubled since October 2023. The result is that both people with a Muslim background and Australian Jews do not feel safe in their own country.

The sharp debate about the genocidal war that Israel ways in Gaza causes a lot of unrest in society. Every week there are major demonstrations against Israeli aggression in Gaza. Recently one of the biggest demonstrations against the war ever took place throughout the country. In Sydney, the whole city was closed off and the demonstrators walked over the iconic Harbor Bridge. According to the police, more than one hundred thousand people had come to the demonstration, the organization had at least two hundred thousand.

The Australian government responds very fiercely to what it sees as an Iranian attempt to raise fire and undermine social cohesion in the country: “Our reaction is a very clear message for countries like Iran who want to interfere with our country. Your aggression will not be tolerated,” said Albanese.

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