By Jeremy Salt
On the basis of allegations only, the Iranian ambassador was expelled from “Australian soil,” as Albanese put it, yet Israel’s ambassador is still allowed to live on that same soil.
On August 26, the Iranian ambassador to Australia was expelled on the accusation that the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) had organised antisemitic arson attacks in Sydney and Melbourne. The IRGC, a branch of the Iranian army, was immediately listed as a terrorist organisation.
The news was announced at a press conference by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and ‘Mike’ Burgess, head of ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organization). Burgess gave Albanese ASIO’s charge sheet one day and Albanese threw out the Iranian ambassador the next. Neither in their pronouncements or in the media is there any evidence that Iran did what they say it did.
According to Burgess, ASIO had “uncovered and unpicked links” between the alleged crimes – including arson attacks in 2024 on a Sydney deli and a synagogue in Melbourne – and “commanders in the IRGC,” which he said had used a “complex web of proxies to hide its involvement.”
The plotting involved “agents of the IRGC” and the “cutouts” they were using, described as “people who are criminal and members of organised crime gangs to do their (the IRGCS’s) bidding or direct their bidding ….” Burgess would not reveal any details of what ASIO had found or who was implicated.
Arrests were made in Melbourne in December 2024 and Sydney in January this year, but in none of the court documents is Iran mentioned.
Two very relevant issues feed into this account, and the timing of the action taken by Albanese. One is a “source” of ASIO’s information. As revealed in the Jerusalem Post and on Sky News by Sharri Markson, a leading propagandist for Israel, in a crowded field, this source is Mossad.
The second issue is the Israeli attack on Iran in June, the repercussions of which have led to an accelerated campaign against Iran on many fronts.
It is evident that through the combination of assassination and the bombing of Iran’s nuclear plants, the US and Israel thought they could bring down the Iranian government.
What happened was that the military commanders assassinated on the first day were replaced immediately, as – like Hizbullah – Iran would have been prepared for this moment for decades. The nuclear plants bombed by the US were damaged but not destroyed, as Trump claimed.
Having withstood the first wave of Israel’s attack, Iran struck back. It bombed Israel with wave after wave of drones and missiles, taking into account those it knew would be shot down and concentrating on those it knew would get through.
The damage done was immense. Blanket censorship failed to block videos of the missiles landing across the country, in government offices, military and intelligence bases, the Weizmann scientific research centre, the port of Haifa and residential blocks. The targets began to look like Gaza.
Israel had experienced nothing like it since 1948. Its missile defence systems had a limited and decreasing effect. After 12 days, it could take no more punishment. Netanyahu was losing the war he had started and had to ask Trump to intervene. Iran agreed to stop if Israel did, but a formal ceasefire was never signed.
The claim in the New York Times that Israel won the war is nonsense. Another week of Iran’s attacks and Israel would have been on its knees. This was the greatest battlefield success against Israel since 1948, and there is no doubt that the outcome deeply shocked the US and Israel.
Warned now that Iran was far more dangerous than they were prepared to believe, the US and Israel began preparing for the next round, with support from their western and Gulf allies.
On the military front, Israel has been given extra billions of dollars in US military aid just in the past few months. Its layered missile defence system consists of. Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow and the two US-supplied THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) batteries, each operated by 100 US servicemen. During the 12-day war on Iran they fired 150 missiles, a quarter of the US stockpile.
In addition, Israel has had the protective cover of missiles fired from US warships and Patriot missile batteries in the CENTCOM area of operations, which includes the Middle East/West Asia and Egypt.
All of this was still not enough to stop Iranian missiles from reaching critical targets, explaining the need to iron out these deficiencies in preparation for the continuation of the war.
The action against off the battlefield includes the restoration of UN sanctions lifted in the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran. Under a ‘snapback’ provision in the agreement, the UK, France and Germany announced in July that the sanctions would be restored by the end of August if there was no “positive agreement” on a nuclear ‘deal.’
The IAEA (International Atomic Agency) Director-General, Rafael Grossi, said on June 18 2025, that “reports that Iran has not been pursuing a nuclear weapon since 2003 are accurate.” Trump’s intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, said the same thing only recently, on the basis of information from US sources.
The nuclear issue is clearly designed by the US, the UK and their European allies to keep Iran off-balance and justify any action the US, Israel and their allies might take against it.
In other events connected with the global campaign against Iran, the UN Security Council has just voted to end the UNIFIL (UN Interim Force in Lebanon) mission in southern Lebanon at the end of 2026.
The decision was taken in the midst of attempts by the US to strong-arm the Lebanese government into disarming/destroying Hizbullah. Israel still occupies parts of southern Lebanon and treats the ceasefire reached in November 2024 as though it doesn’t exist. It has repeatedly attacked UNIFIL positions with tank and artillery fire, recently and over the decades.
UNIFIL (UN Interim Force in Lebanon) has monitored the ‘security’ situation in southern Lebanon since 1978In April 1996, Israel shelled a UNIFIL base at Qana, killing 106 civilians taking shelter there and wounding UNIFIL peacekeepers. Now, to suit Israel, even this paper-thin line against Israeli mayhem is to be removed. Finally, in support of Israel, the US has refused to issue visas to Palestinian officials scheduled to attend sessions of the UNGA in September.
War, the threat of attack, sabotage, assassination, sanctions reinforced ever since 1979 are the weapons used by the ‘west’ to destroy resistance to the settler state in Palestine but propaganda is no less important, which is why the accusations leading to the arbitrary expulsion of the Iranian ambassador in Australia have at least to be considered in this light, especially given the involvement of Mossad.
The possibilities don’t come out of a spy thriller. They are just the way intelligence agencies operate. Dirty tricks are their business, and no one sets them up better than Mossad, which is virtually integrated into the ‘five eyes’ (US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) intelligence network active since the 1940s
The ASIO head accused Iran of harassing and intimidating Australian citizens, which is precisely what ASIO has done over decades, apart from the dirty tricks it has played outside Australia’s borders.
The accusations have been snapped up as fact by the Australian media, but on the face of it, they don’t make much sense. Australians are apparently expected to believe that under the threat of imminent destruction by the US and Israel, Iran took time out last year to get a ‘cutout’ to start a fire in the kitchen of a Sydney delicatessen before organizing the arson attack on the Adass Israel synagogue, which is anti-Israel and anti-zionist. Of all the synagogues in Melbourne, why would Iran choose possibly the only one that is hostile to Israel?
The attack threw suspicion over Palestinians, their supporters and Muslim communities in general. What the attack did was to allow Israel’s lobbyists to further highlight ‘anti-semitism’ and divert attention from the genocidal crimes being committed in Gaza by the government they support.
Yes, anything is possible, including ‘rogue elements,’ but this looks and smells like a setup, and many Australian noses are twitching.
Albanese has refused to name the genocide for what it is and has done no more in the past two years than give Israel mild little slaps on the wrist.
However, when on August 11 he declared Australia’s intention to recognize a Palestinian state in September, Netanyahu insulted him personally. US Secretary of State Mark Rubio said the decision was “meaningless” and Albanese had taken it largely for domestic political reasons, but Hamas praised him.
This was the last thing Albanese would have wanted. It opened him up to further attack from Israel, the US and the Murdoch media. Wherever the truth lies in this affair, Albanese’s expulsion of the Iranian ambassador is an affirmation that he is a good friend, after all.
At this stage, Iran cannot be convicted on the basis of allegations, at least partly coming from a deeply tainted source, Mossad. While the media, and especially the Murdoch media, have joined in the vilification of Iran, Australians need to stand back and keep their minds open until ASIO proves its case (if it can).
It has already struck many that while the Iranian ambassador has been expelled on the basis of unproven allegations that his government set fire to a delicatessen and a synagogue, with no-one being hurt, the Israeli ambassador remains in his embassy despite the proven facts of the destruction by his government’s military of close to 1000 mosques in Gaza and its slaughter of at least 62,000 people.
On the basis of allegations only, the Iranian ambassador was expelled from “Australian soil,” as Albanese put it, yet Israel’s ambassador is still allowed to live on that same soil despite the proof that his government is committing the worst crimes under international law. Does the fact that the soil is Australian (stolen just as the soil in Palestine was) make that much difference?
Israel’s terrible crimes are facts, not allegations. We have been forced to watch them for almost two years.
The Iranian ambassador is thrown out because of a small kitchen fire in Sydney and the attempt to burn down a synagogue in Melbourne. Israel has destroyed millions of kitchens in Gaza and destroyed hundreds of mosques, yet its ambassador is allowed to stay. There is something deeply perverse here.
– Jeremy Salt taught at the University of Melbourne, at Bosporus University in Istanbul and Bilkent University in Ankara for many years, specializing in the modern history of the Middle East. Among his recent publications is his 2008 book, The Unmaking of the Middle East. A History of Western Disorder in Arab Lands (University of California Press) and The Last Ottoman Wars. The Human Cost 1877-1923 (University of Utah Press, 2019). He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
US, UK, Australia, Germany, Canada and many others are all the same. They are promoting the zionist agenda and hasbara at whatever cost. They can do as they please, for the end of their bastard child with named “israel” is looming in the distance
Now, remind me…
Why does everyone hate the Jews??? 🤔
this. this right here…
Jew privilege.
Excellent analysis. “Israel” also needed something to staunch (pathetically) the unmovable Australian rage about “Israel’s” Gaza Genocide.
Yet Albanese is silent about repeated graffiti, fires, deaths, at the hands of violent, illegal settlers protected by the “IOF”. Silent.
Australia is not a sovereign country. It is governed by a coterie of rich white men living mostly in Washington and London, who are not necessarily the leaders of either nation in which these cities are. For example, the USA had a black president, the UK had an Indian prime minister and now has a black foreign minister. While Australia still manages to have white faces in leadership roles, it can recruit a Chinese woman to be “foreign” minister. Israel shares much of its current behaviour with the past behaviour of the countries mentioned, including Australia. They all ruthlessly exterminated indigenous populations and were never punished. Iran must punish Israel severely, and soon.