weekend protests across the country<\/a> against Israel\u2019s war on Gaza, which organisers said were the largest pro-Palestine demonstrations in Australia\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\u201cIt seems that this action is taken in order to compensate for the limited criticism the Australian side has directed at the Zionist regime [Israel],\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Tuesday, Australia\u2019s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Iran was behind the torching of a kosher cafe in Sydney last October and directed a major arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne in December.<\/p>\n
There were no casualties in either of the attacks where assailants set fire to the properties, causing extensive damage.<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera\u2019s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said\u00a0Iran sees Australia\u2019s actions \u201cas a continuation of hostile actions by the Australian side over the past years\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia has imposed several sanctions [on Iran], for example, in 2024 after Iran\u2019s retaliatory action to attack the Israeli territory\u201d, he said, adding that Tehran sees these latest moves \u201cas another sign of Australia siding with the Israelis\u201d.<\/p>\n
Expelled ambassador \u2018vocal in his support for the Palestinian cause\u2019<\/p>\n
Australia declared the Iranian ambassador, Ahmad Sadeghi, \u201cpersona non grata\u201d and ordered him and three other officials to leave the country within seven days. Australia\u2019s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the move marked the first time Australia has expelled an ambassador since World War II.<\/p>\n
Australia also withdrew its ambassador to Iran and suspended operations at its embassy in Tehran, which opened in 1968.<\/p>\n
Wong added that the government will continue to maintain some diplomatic lines with Iran to advance Canberra\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n
Sadeghi was \u201cvocal in his support for the Palestinian cause\u201d, Foad Izadi, a world studies professor at the University of Tehran, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the main reason for Australia\u2019s decision to expel him. Just a few days ago, we saw the largest pro-Palestine demonstrations in many Australian cities.<\/p>\n
\u201cExpelling a country\u2019s ambassador is rarely done, and the fact that the Australian government has done this is an indication that \u2026 they\u2019re afraid of their own population and they\u2019re afraid of the demands this population [makes] when it comes to the issue of genocide in Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n
PM Albanese also said, \u201c\u2026 the government will legislate to list Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, as a terrorist organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is investigating possible IRGC involvement in other anti-Jewish attacks since Israel\u2019s war on Gaza began in October 2023.<\/p>\n
Izadi rejected those claims, saying it \u201chas not provided any evidence\u201d. He believes the Australian government has taken these decisions as it \u201cis worried about the fact that the Australian people are seriously questioning Australia\u2019s support for Israel\u201d and \u201cdemanding that the government be more active in opposing the genocide in Palestine\u201d.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s moves against Iran come as the country\u2019s ties with Israel plummet over its criticism of Israeli-imposed famine and the war on Gaza, as well as its decision to join France, the United Kingdom and Canada in recognising a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September.<\/p>\n
Last week, Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Albanese a \u201cweak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia\u2019s Jews\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Australian government has hit back at Netanyahu, with Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke saying that strength was not measured \u201cby how many people you can blow up or how many children you can leave hungry\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tehran rejects Australia\u2019s accusations, calling the move unjustified and influenced by internal political developments. Iran has promised reciprocal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[77,64,63,49308,5575,71301,36089,12241,44,84,17736],"class_list":["post-97146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-asia-pacific","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-genocide","tag-iran","tag-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-protests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}