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Australia Blames Iran for Antisemitic Arson Attacks, Expels Envoy

A flag flutters above the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 26, 2025. Photo: Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has expelled Iran’s ambassador, accusing Iran of orchestrating at least two antisemitic attacks on Australian soil. Photo: REUTERS/Peter Hobson
Australia accused Iran of directing two antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne and gave Tehran’s ambassador seven days to leave the country on Tuesday, its first such expulsion since World War II.
Canberra is the latest Western government to accuse Iran of carrying out hostile covert activities on its soil. Last month, 14 countries, including Britain, the US, and France, condemned what they called a surge in assassination, kidnapping, and harassment plots by Iranian intelligence services.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Australian Security Intelligence Organization had gathered credible intelligence that Iran was behind at least two attacks.
“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” Albanese told a press briefing. “They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community.”
Iran had sought to “disguise its involvement” in last year’s attacks on a kosher restaurant in Sydney and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Albanese said. No injuries were reported in the attacks.
Since the Israel-Gaza war began in October 2023, Australian homes, schools, synagogues, and vehicles have been targeted in antisemitic vandalism and arson.
Australia’s decision was motivated by internal affairs, and antisemitism had no place in Iranian culture, a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said.
Iran would take an appropriate decision in response to Australia’s action, state media quoted the spokesperson as saying.
Australia’s security agency said it was likely that Iran had directed further attacks, Albanese said, adding that Australia has suspended operations at its Tehran embassy and all its diplomats were safe in a third country.
The government would designate Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, Albanese added, joining the United States and Canada, which already blacklist the IRGC.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and three Iranian officials had seven days to leave.
“Iran’s actions are completely unacceptable,” she told the briefing.
ORGANIZED CRIME GANGS
The IRGC was directing people in Australia to undertake crimes, said Mike Burgess, director general of the security agency.
“They’re just using cut-outs, including people who are criminals and members of organized crime gangs to do their bidding or direct their bidding,” he added.
Security services in Britain and Sweden also warned last year that Tehran was using criminal proxies to carry out its violent attacks in those countries, with London saying it had disrupted 20 Iran-linked plots since 2022.
Iran has repeatedly denied such allegations, which it says are part of a campaign against it by hostile Western powers.
Israel‘s embassy in Australia welcomed the action against its major rival Iran.
“Iran’s regime is not only a threat to Jews or Israel, it endangers the entire free world, including Australia,” it said in a statement on X.
Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told reporters in Israel: “For the Australian government to take those threats seriously is a positive outcome.”
Israel and Iran fought a 12-day air war in June, after Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Iran’s actions were an attack on Australia’s sovereignty, said Daniel Aghian, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), an umbrella group of more than 200 organizations.
“These were attacks that deliberately targeted Jewish Australians, destroyed a sacred house of worship, caused millions of dollars of damage, and terrified our community,” he said on Tuesday.
ARSON ATTACKS
Two men have been charged over the December attack that set ablaze the synagogue, built in the 1960s by Holocaust survivors in the suburb of Ripponlea.
Last week, police in the southeastern state of Victoria said they were examining electronic devices seized in a search of the home of one of the men, who is set to appear in court on Wednesday.
Police say three people broke into the synagogue and set the fire.
Fire gutted the kosher restaurant in Bondi, Lewis Continental Kitchen. Media said the man arrested in January over that attack had links to a well-known Australian motorcycle gang. He denied the charges in court and was freed on bail.
The Australian Iranian Community Organization welcomed the expulsion and the move to declare the IRGC as a terrorist group.
“We are really happy to see them go,” its president, Siamak Ghahreman, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in an interview.
About 90,000 Iranian-born people live in Australia.
Ties between Israel and Australia have been strained since Canberra’s center-left government decided to recognize a Palestinian state on Aug. 11.
On Sunday, thousands joined nationwide anti-Israel protests, prompting the ECAJ to warn they were leading to an “unsafe environment.”
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.