In response to the “unprecedented attack” on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne and Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney last year, Australia expelled ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and three other Iranian officials, while declaring Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organisation.

ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess said his intelligence organisation found Iran directed “at least two and likely more attacks on Jewish interests in Australia”, using “a complex web of proxies to hide its involvement”.

“Our painstaking investigation uncovered and unpicked the links between the alleged crimes and commanders in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC,” he said.

Burgess did not lay out the specific evidence tying the IRGC to the attacks but said such formal assessments were “not done quickly or taken lightly” and the agency’s intelligence analysts’ conclusions were clear.

Early this morning, he shared a screenshot of a BBC article reporting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s extraordinary personal attack last week on Albanese in retaliation for promising to recognise a Palestinian state and blocking a far-right Israeli MP from visiting Australia.

“Iran is home to among the world’s oldest Jewish communities including dozens of synagogues. 

“Accusing Iran of attacking such sites in Australia while we do our utmost to protect them in our own country makes zero sense.”

In response Albanese said he treated world leaders with respect and “doesn’t take these things personally”, but Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke didn’t show such restraint.

“Strength is not measured by how many people you can blow up, or how many children you can leave hungry,” Burke said.

Early this morning, Araghchi claimed Iran was “paying the price for the Australian people’s support for Palestine”. 

“Canberra should know better than to attempt to appease a regime led by War Criminals,” he wrote.

“Doing so will only embolden Netanyahu and his ilk.”

Michael Shoebridge, a former Australian defence and security official and director of the think tank Strategic Analysis Australia, said he didn’t believe the move to expel the Iranian ambassador was prompted by Israel’s complaints.

“I don’t think that’s a matter of Australia-Israel relations, but a matter of community cohesion here in Australia,” he said.

Yesterday was the first time Canberra has declared a foreign ambassador persona non grata since the end of World War II.

“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” Albanese said.

“They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community.”

Flinders University international conflict expert Dr Jessica Genauer said the looming designation of the IRGC as a terrorist group was just as remarkable as the expulsion of the ambassador.

“It’s very unusual for a state to designate part of another state entity as a terror group,” she said, describing the IRGC as even more tightly integrated with the state of Iran than Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Taliban, which was not in power at the time of Australia’s designation, in Afghanistan.

“So that’s something else we’re seeing that is almost unprecedented.”

She told 9News the attacks by Iran were unlikely to be unique to Australia.

“It’s just that this is the first time that our intelligence agencies are coming out in such a strong way and saying, ‘Yes, we have clear evidence that links the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to these terror attacks on Australian soil’.”

Burke earlier in the day said Iran’s actions were an “unprecedented attack” on Australia.

“It’s aimed at creating fear, stoking internal divisions, and eroding social cohesion. It’s true that no one was injured in these attacks, it’s not true that no one was harmed,” he said.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin described Albanese’s announcement as both comforting and “chilling”.

“Well, on the one hand, it brings us some comfort to know that our law enforcement and security agencies are so good and working so hard to keep us safe, to bring the perpetrators to justice, to uncover the layers of this plot and to protect all Australians from terrorism,” he told 9News. 

“But on the other hand, to learn, have confirmed what the Iranian regime that plotted and had carried out at least two of the attacks, it’s a chilling development because you’re dealing with a foreign actor which has sown discord and bloodshed throughout the Middle East and the wider world for many years.”

Australian Iranian Community Organisation president Siamak Ghahreman welcomed the federal government’s decision.

“The Iranian government is against its own people, and that’s why many people who are living in Australia actually flee the country,” he told 9News.

– Reported with Associated Press.