Ahmad Sadeghi: Who is Iran’s now-expelled ambassador to Australia?

Australia has expelled Iran’s top diplomat to Canberra Ahmad Sadeghi after explosive findings the Middle East regime was behind two Anti-Semtic attacks in Melbourne and Sydney.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong warned the ambassador and three additional Iranian diplomats to leave the country in a week — declaring them “persona non grata”.

In the wake of what she labelled “appalling” attacks on Australia’s Jewish community, Senator Wong said Mr Sadeghi would be the first ambassador to be booted from Australian soil since World War II.

“Iran’s actions are completely unacceptable. These extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil have crossed a line,” Senator Wong said.

“That’s why we have declared Iran’s ambassador to Australia persona non grata, as well as three other Iranian officials.”

The expulsion of Iran’s envoy comes after a string of controversies since taking on the role in Canberra in mid-2023 and multiple calls for the Albanese Government to send him packing — including by the Coalition in October 2024.

It includes social media posts containing genocidal comments — including calling “to put an end” to Israel and advocating that “wiping out the Zionist plague out of the holy lands of Palestine happens no later than 2027”.

His unhinged posts also said it would be “a desirable happening”, a “brilliant prospect” and “a heavenly and divine promise”.

In posts to his official X account in December 2023 he dubbed the Jewish state as a “faucet for occupation, ethnic cleansing and a real holocaust against [Palestinian] civilians”.

He also called for “humanity to put an end to the heinous life of the most notorious killing machine in current world history”.

Mr Sadeghi described the death of a Hamas terrorist leader responsible for bloodshed in Gaza as “sad and tragic” and labelled slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a “blessed martyr” who had opposed the “vile entity of the Zionist regime”.

Mr Albanese had condemned public remarks made late last year as “abhorrent”, “hateful” and “anti-Semitic” but didn’t answer whether he should be expelled for them.

Then-shadow foreign minister Simon Birmingham had called on the PM to kick out what he dubbed as a “vile Iranian ambassador”.

“If not for his diplomatic immunity the Iranian Ambassador’s anti-Semitic, divisive and inflammatory remarks could well be in breach of hate speech laws in Australia,” Mr Birmingham wrote in a damning opinion piece for The Nightly.

“Such flagrant disregard for Australian standards warrants a far stronger response by the Albanese Government.”

Former Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had called for the PM to “show the strength of character and expel him from our country”.

Instead, Mr Sadeghi was at the time “called in” Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for a dressing down on the comments.

Australia has previously placed hundreds of sanctions against Iranian individuals and entities.

Earlier this year after the US bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities, Mr Sadeghi told SBS the country had a “right to enrich uranium” and labelled the strikes as “unprovoked and against international law”.

He also warned against Australia supporting any US escalation of air strikes, in an interview with the AFR.

The diplomats’ expulsion was one of several measures Anthony Albanese announced after he was briefed by the nation’s security service ASIO and Australian Federal Police, which found “credible intelligence” linking Iran to at least two attacks.

It included using a “layer cake” of proxies to firebomb Melbourne’s Adass Synagogue in December and start a fire at Sydney’s Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in October.

Mr Albanese said investigations were ongoing into whether Iranian was responsible for other incidents in Australia.

He added it was “very clear” that “very specific” ASIO evidence was able to trace funds from individuals back to Iran.

“We are asserting that Iran chose to support violent action here in Australia. We suspect that there are other occasions as well, and those investigations are ongoing,” the PM told ABC’s 7.30 on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister added ASIO’s advice had found the Iranian ambassador wasn’t involved in the attacks.

“That is the advice that ASIO has given us. And given the quality and the detail of the advice that we received, the Director General (Mike) Burgess’ comments are, I believe, accurate,” he said.

The several remaining staff at the Iranian embassy in Canberra will be permitted to stay to assist citizens and expatriates in Australia. The country has a small Iranian-born diaspora of about 85,000 people.

It’s understood six officials and two dependants left Australia overnight.

While there was no sight of the ambassador on Tuesday, a woman outside the embassy told a swarm of reporters she was only given a 30-minute notice before Mr Albanese made the announcement.

Speaking briefly with the media in fear of consequences for her family in Iran, she the embassy should be closed and claimed the Iranian regime “don’t care for” Australian laws or “humanity”.

“I think the Iranian Embassy should be closed. That is my belief and I think the belief of all Iranians,” she said.