Tehran’s game of terror reaches Australia

It is a truly frightening prospect that the despotic regime in Tehran directed the Adass Israel synagogue firebombing, the Lewis’ Continental Kitchen arson and potentially other attacks.

But the confirmation has also led to many of us feeling vindicated. Our communal bodies, along with any geopolitical think tank worth its salt, and indeed, Iranians themselves, have been warning for years of the Islamic regime’s malevolence. At the same time as it brutally oppresses its own citizens, the regime has for decades wrought destruction in the Middle East and globally through its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist proxies. Former Iranian hostage Kylie Moore-Gilbert warned it had agents operating within our borders. Now, we have confirmation. Tehran has indeed turned its malice towards Australia and conducted state-sponsored terrorism on our soil.

The Albanese government’s response this week was wholly appropriate. While the actions should have been taken years ago, it is to be commended for expelling the Iranian ambassador, suspending embassy operations in Tehran and moving to finally – as recommended by a Senate Committee in February 2023 – proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.

Our democratic nation has nothing in common with the butchers of Tehran. It is better late than never that our political leaders have realised this. We are grateful to ASIO, the Australian Federal Police and the state police agencies that have worked so diligently to uncover the evidence so that they could act. We are extremely lucky that no lives were lost in the attacks, and hopefully the government’s measures will ensure that none are in future. But Australia still has a serious issue. The Iranian regime clearly wants to cause fear and division, and there are still too many who seem all too eager to listen to its hateful message.

Those people, personified by the anti-Israel demonstrators on the Sydney Harbour Bridge earlier this month who carried portraits of the Iranian Supreme Leader, need to immediately disavow their actions and allegiances, or be dealt with by the law. And any well-meaning people who marched alongside them need to seriously question whether they have fallen victim to regime propaganda, were in fact played, and unknowingly served as pawns in Iran’s game of intimidation and discord.