Iran has vowed to take “reciprocal action” after Australia expelled its ambassador over accusations that Tehran was behind antisemitic arson attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.
Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (Asio) had “credible intelligence” to believe that the Iranian government was behind the attacks against the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne and Lewis’s Continental Kitchen in Bondi in Sydney last year.
He also announced that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps would now be listed as a terrorist group.
But Iran hit back on Tuesday and pledged to take “reciprocal action”. It also said that Albanese was weak and was only taking the action to compensate for a tougher recent line on Israel.
“The accusation that has been made is absolutely rejected,” said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei during a weekly press conference, adding that “any inappropriate and unjustified action on a diplomatic level will have a reciprocal reaction”.
Australia declared Iranian ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi “persona non grata” and ordered him and three other officials to leave the country within seven days.
It also withdrew its own ambassador to Iran and suspended operations at its embassy in Tehran, which opened in 1968.
On Tuesday, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said in a post on X that Albanese was a “weak politician” and said the accusation against Iran “makes zero sense”.
“Iran is 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,” Iran’s top diplomat said, referring to Israeli politicians.
Baqaei said the measures appeared to be “influenced by internal developments” in Australia, including recent protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.
“It seems that this action is taken in order to compensate for the limited criticism the Australian side has directed at the Zionist regime (Israel),” he added.