In an annual national security threat briefing on Wednesday, the top official of Australia’s primary domestic intelligence agency has publicly laid out detailed allegations that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) orchestrated two separate arson attacks against Jewish community sites in Australia’s largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, using agents with past ties to the country.
Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), confirmed that Iran has long regarded Australia as a valid target for covert, state-sponsored violent operations. The two attacks, which took place two months apart in early 2024, targeted a kosher restaurant, Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, in Sydney, and Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue, leaving both properties damaged by fire. Last year, Australian authorities formally held Iran responsible for the incidents, triggering a major diplomatic rupture that saw Tehran’s ambassador to Australia expelled. Iranian officials have repeatedly denied all involvement in the attacks.
Burgess outlined the structure of the IRGC’s plot in the briefing: the firebombing of the Sydney kosher eatery was directed by an Australian citizen who is currently based in Iran and holds a senior position as an IRGC agent, overseeing the force’s global covert networks. The second attack, on the Melbourne synagogue, was directed by a former Australian resident who now lives in Iraq, recruited to the IRGC’s cause via Iraqi militia groups. Burgess noted the IRGC specifically sought out this operative for his established local criminal connections, and even provided backing for his other ongoing illegal activities before the attacks were exposed.
To protect the integrity of ongoing investigations and upcoming criminal prosecutions, Burgess declined to release the names of any of the suspects involved. He did, however, share new details about shifts in the case after ASIO publicly named Iran as the party responsible for the arsons. Once the operation was exposed, the operative’s Iranian backers withdrew their support, and following coordinated pressure from Australian law enforcement and local security officials in the region where the operative was based, the IRGC itself detained and imprisoned the former Australian resident.
Burgess characterized the sprawling investigation into the two coordinated attacks as one of the most complex and extensive probes conducted by ASIO in recent decades. He also reiterated earlier warnings that the IRGC is suspected of involvement in multiple other antisemitic attacks targeting Australian Jewish communities, a trend that emerged after the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023.
To date, multiple individuals have already been charged with criminal offenses linked to the arson plots, though authorities have not yet confirmed whether these low-level actors knew they were acting on behalf of Iranian state actors when they carried out the attacks.