Australia urged to hit Iran on home soil after expelling Iranian ambassador over attacks on Jewish sites

The former US diplomat who called on Anthony Albanese to expel the Iranian Ambassador one year ago has described Iran’s attacks on Jewish sites in Australia as acts of war and urged the Prime Minister to consider covert and military retaliation.

Mark Wallace, a former US diplomat and now CEO of the bipartisan US-based NGO United Against Nuclear Iran, told The Nightly one year ago that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was risking a spate of anti-Semitic attacks on Australian soil if he did not expel Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi over incendiary statements, including calling Israel the “Zionist plague” that should be wiped from Palestine.

In response to Mr Albanese’s announcement on Tuesday that intelligence agency ASIO had concluded Iran authored and funded two of last year’s attacks, including the firebombing of a synagogue in Melbourne and a kosher cafe in Sydney, Mr Wallace welcomed the Australian Government’s response but said it was overdue and should go further.

“Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today took strong steps against Iran’s regime in response to these heinous crimes,” Mr Wallace said in a statement to The Nightly.

“They include declaring Iran’s ambassador to Australia persona non grata and beginning the process of listing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.

“This is long overdue.

“Australia will soon join the United States and Canada in declaring the IRGC the terrorist organisation that it is.”

Mr Albanese has given Iran’s Ambassador seven days to leave the country. The Government will change legislation in order to list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.

He said that Iran had demonstrated with its attacks on Australian soil that it was the foremost sponsor of anti-semitism globally and that Australia could act to weaken its terror.

“The IRGC is the most antisemitic armed Islamist organisation in the world,” he said.

“These terror attacks in Australia are not only terrorism, but they are also acts of war against Australia.

“Sanctions alone will not deter the IRGC from plotting terror abroad.

“Canberra should consider covert and military responses against IRGC installations on Iranian soil that formulated these plots to restore deterrence.

“As the United States under President Trump’s leadership has demonstrated, sanctions must be backed by a credible military threat – this is the only way to deter the Ayatollah.”

Australia gave its allies, including the United Kingdom, a heads-up on the announcement before it was made on Tuesday afternoon.

An Iranian foreign minister spokesperson warned that “any inappropriate and unjustified action at the diplomatic level” would “result in a reciprocal reaction.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyen Abbas Araghchi said he joined Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in describing Mr Albanese as “weak.”

“I am not in the habit of joining causes with wanted War Criminals, but Netanyahu is right about one thing: Australia’s PM is indeed a ‘weak politician’,” he said in a post on X.

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

“Iran is paying the price for the Australian people’s support for Palestine.”

Earlier this month, senior Labor figures including Senator Tony Sheldon, the dumped Cabinet minister Ed Husic and former foreign minister and NSW Premier Bob Carr led an estimate 90,000-strong protest across the Sydney Harbour Bridge demonstrating against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza following the October 7 attacks.

The Labor troika marched in front of a protester holding up a picture of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Despite claiming not to know of the image or recognising the Iranian leader, Mr Carr posted the image on his social media and has not removed it.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, the Melbourne academic who was locked up by the Iranians on false charges for more than 800 days said she and others had been warning the government that Iranian agents were operating on Australian soil, but were ignored.

“We have been calling for more than a year for Ahmad Sadeghi, the Iranian ambassador, to be expelled from Australia due to his repeated antisemitic remarks on social media, and due to his embassy’s sinister role in sponsoring the surveillance of dissidents here in Australia,” Ms Moore-Gilbert said.

“For years now the Iranian-Australian community and other victims of the IRGC, including myself, have been literally screaming at rallies, to our local MPs, in parliamentary consultations and in reports to the national security hotline that Iranian agents are operating brazenly and with few consequences here on Australian soil.

“Many of us have long been saying that an Iranian hand lies behind some of the antisemitic attacks which have proliferated here in Australia since October 7.

“I personally have petitioned two foreign ministers to sanction IRGC officials directly complicit in the wrongful detention and effective hostage-taking of myself and at least four other Australian citizens, with no response.”

Before Hamas launched its attacks on October 7, the Liberal Senator Claire Chandler launched a Senate inquiry that recommended doing so. Freedom of Information requests show the Government has blocked releasing its reasoning for not listing the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, citing defence, national security and international relations.

The Coalition also gave the Government backing for expelling the Iranian ambassador as early as October 2024, but Labor ignored the offer.

Andrew Hastie, the opposition’s Home Affairs spokesman, extended the hand of bipartisanship again when he praised Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s decision to expel the Iranian Ambassador.

“This is a good decision in the national interest,” Mr Hastie, a former SAS Captain who served in Afghanistan, told The Nightly.

“We support it.

“This sends a stern and clear message to the Iranian Government and anyone else who conducts these sinister operations.

“If foreign governments run and direct violent operations like this, they can expect their Ambassadors to get frogmarched out of our country.

“The Coalition called for this last year, so we are disappointed that it’s taken so long.

“Many Australians of Jewish heritage or faith have lived in fear because of the delayed action from the Albanese Government.”

But Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on Sky that Iran had crossed a line not previously drawn.

“They underestimate the extent to which a new line was crossed the moment you deal with the fact that you have an attack on Australian soil,” Mr Burke said.

“It is a big thing for any government to shut off dialogue in the way that you do when you withdraw your staff from your own embassy and expel an ambassador.

“There is always advantage in dialogue that needs to be weighed up.

“A line had clearly, so clearly been crossed when we were dealing with an attack on our own soil, and I think anyone who pretends that we’re in the same situation with what we now know as we were, as the Australian people were a week ago, is missing the fundamental difference that you face when you have an attack on your own soil.”