ASIO won’t rule out Iran targeting Jewish leaders

Australia’s domestic spy chief has revealed he would not rule out Iran attempting to assassinate prominent Jewish Australians and said his agency has already warned a number of community leaders about the danger.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess made the comments during a rare, wide-ranging interview with veteran broadcaster Neil Mitchell on the Mitchell Unlimited podcast, published last week.

“I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Iran would want to kill prominent Jewish Australians,” Burgess said.

Asked directly whether a foreign country might want to enter Australia to kill Jewish leaders, Burgess replied: “Yes, that is a possibility.”

The ASIO chief stressed there was no specific plot currently under investigation.

“No immediate threat that we’re investigating, but we do have that concern,” he said. “And it’s not because of Australia, it’s because of their hatred of Jews.”

Burgess said he held “grave concerns” that an Australian citizen would eventually be killed onshore by a foreign power, naming Iran as one such actor.

“Iran is one actor,” he said. “You’ve seen them actually light the match and fan the flames on antisemitism.”

He described antisemitism in Australia as having reached a “pretty high, disturbing level” since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, and said political leaders, the media and the wider community, including himself, should have responded more forcefully.

“All of us should have stood up more. Maybe I could have shouted more,” he said.

During the interview, Burgess cited a recent incident at Melbourne Airport, where a Jewish family said they were targeted with abuse, including the phrase “baby killer”, while travelling through the international terminal.

The warning follows ASIO’s finding last year that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps directed two firebombings on Australian soil in 2024: the arson attack on Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Bondi and the firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne.

Both were carried out using criminal proxies to conceal Tehran’s involvement. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese subsequently expelled Iran’s ambassador, the first such expulsion since World War II.

Community anxiety has also been shaped by the December 2025 mass shooting at a Chanukah gathering at Bondi Beach, in which 15 people were killed in an attack authorities have linked to Islamic State ideology rather than Iran.

AIJAC executive manager Joel Burnie said the ASIO warning could not be ignored. He pointed to the Bondi Beach attack in urging the government and opposition to act.

“It’s been in Australia for a very long time, but unfortunately after the horrific events of October 7, 2023, it was able to permeate,” Burnie told News 24.

“It was able to rear its head, and unfortunately, through a lack of leadership, it’s been able to become normalised in this country.”

Despite his warning, Burnie said he remained hopeful.

“I am optimistic that if anyone in any nation can come together and fight the scourges of the historical antisemitism and ancient antisemitism, and Jew hatred, it’s right here, in this great country of ours, in the great country of Australia,” he said.