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Foreign Minister Penny Wong has rejected comments from her Iranian counterpart, who said Australia’s accusation that Iran directed two antisemitic attacks on Australian soil “makes zero sense” and called Prime Minister Anthony Albanese a “weak politician”.
In response, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X: “Australia’s PM is indeed a ‘weak politician'”, and that the accusations against Iran “makes zero sense”.
“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,” he said.
‘This crossed a line’
Speaking to ABC radio on Wednesday morning, Wong said she had seen the comments from Iran’s foreign minister.
“We reject it,” she said.
“We have faith in the assessment that has been provided to us and that’s why we’ve taken the unprecedented action.
“We know we have diplomatic relationships with countries where we have disagreements. We do that because we need channels to prosecute Australians’ interests — and to look after, where we can, Australians who are overseas.
“But to have a foreign country engage in these sorts of violent activities, or orchestrate them, in our country is unacceptable. And that’s why we’ve acted.”
Wong said the Australian government weighed that “this crossed a line” and “it cannot be countenanced”.
Iran had earlier vowed to take reciprocal action, with Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei saying during a weekly press conference: “The accusation that has been made is absolutely rejected.”
“Any inappropriate and unjustified action on a diplomatic level will have a reciprocal reaction,” Baqaei said.
When asked whether she was concerned about potential retaliatory action from Iran, Wong said the Iranian regime is an “unpredictable” one — “which we have seen is capable of aggression and violence”.
“We took steps before this was made public to remove all Australian personnel from the Department of Foreign Affairs in Tehran, and we did so because our first priority is to keep people safe,” she said.
‘Deeply disturbing conclusion’
Albanese announced the Australian government’s decision on Tuesday, saying the domestic spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), had gathered enough credible intelligence to reach the “deeply disturbing conclusion” that the Iranian government directed at least two attacks against the Jewish community.
“Iran has sought to disguise its involvement, but ASIO assesses it was behind the attacks on the Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney on 20 October last year, and the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne,” he told reporters in Canberra.
ASIO assessed it’s likely Iran directed further attacks as well, Albanese said.
“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil. They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community,” Albanese said.
In response to the attacks, Albanese said the government had declared Iranian ambassador Ahmad Sagedhi “persona non grata” and ordered him and three other officials to leave the country within seven days — the first such expulsion since World War Two.
He said the government would also legislate to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.
Opposition backs government’s actions, says ‘it’s a little bit late’
Speaking to ABC radio on Wednesday morning, Opposition home affairs spokesperson Andrew Hastie supported the government’s actions.
“We needed to send a very clear message as a country that any foreign power who conducts violent operations through proxies on our shores are not welcome here,” he said.
“That’s why expelling the ambassador is a good decision, and that’s why the Coalition will work very quickly with the government to list the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation,” Hastie said.
However, he said the government should have acted sooner.
“This decision had to be made. We called for this to happen last year. We called for the listing of the IRGC 10 times since 2023,” he said.
“We are glad it has happened. We think it’s a little late, but nonetheless, this is the right move in the national interest.”
When asked why the Coalition didn’t list the IRGC during its time in government, Hastie said: “That’s a good question.”
“I was the chair of the intelligence committee. I was always keen to list it. That’s for whoever was in government then to explain,” he said.
Israeli spokesperson calls actions a ‘positive outcome’
An Israeli government spokesperson said the Australian government’s actions were a “positive outcome”.
Responding to a question from the ABC during a media briefing, David Mencer said: “We certainly see it from Israel, that Australia taking the threats against Israel and the Jewish people, Jewish Australians living in Australia — for the Australian government to take those threats seriously is a positive outcome.”
“It is, of course, a matter for the Australian government, the actions they take,” he said.
Mencer referenced what he described as a “very forthright intervention” from Netanyahu, who recently said in a post on X: “History will remember Albanese for what he is: a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews.”
“He made those comments because he did not believe the actions of the Australian government had gone anywhere near far enough to address the issues of antisemitism,” Mencer said.
“He made very forthright comments about the prime minister himself.”
Responding to Netanyahu’s public rebuke, Albanese had said he wouldn’t take the comments personally.
