Iran’s terror threat to Australia has not diminished

Iran has generated a sophisticated eco-system of terrorism. That’s the sober message delivered by ASIO chief Mike Burgess in his candid annual threat assessment speech delivered recently at ASIO’s headquarters in Canberra. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has emerged as one of the most influential instruments of Iranian state power beyond the Middle East. Iran has been battered by the impacts of the US-Israel war. But Burgess believes that Iran’s interest in carrying out acts of terrorism in Australia hasn’t diminished.

Burgess took his audience through Iran’s recent proxy arson campaign against Jewish targets here. The attacks against Jewish communities were perpetrated by criminals directed by the IRGC. An Iran-based Australian citizen who orchestrated the firebombing of the Lewis Continental Kitchen in Bondi was a senior agent of the IRGC Quds Force, running its networks around the world.

A former Australian resident living in Iraq directed the attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne. Iran recruited him through Iraqi-based militia groups. Burgess observed that the Iranian department he worked for was named Department eleven thousand, the covert international intelligence and operations unit within the Quds Force.

The Albanese government deserves praise when last November it prescribed the IRGC as a state sponsor of terrorism. It will be important we maintain the IRGC’s terrorist designation, like Al Qaeda and ISIS. We expelled the Iranian ambassador and three of his staff last August. But we haven’t withdrawn Iranian diplomatic privileges: the Iran embassy still operates with staff in Canberra. There’s a huge irony: the Albanese government has moved to shut down the Afghan embassy in Canberra, which represents voices of moderation, while leaving open the embassy of Iran, a state that actively supports the Taliban.

In this context it’s noteworthy that shadow education minister Julian Leeser recently pointed out that he represents the third largest Persian community in the country. They informed the shadow minister that their community feared the activities of the embassy and the IRGC in this country. Leeser wants the embassy shut outright.