BBC:

Yang Tian

Australia has given Iran's ambassador seven days to leave the country after alleging the country's government directed antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.

Intelligence services linked Iran to an arson attack on a cafe in Sydney in October last year, and another on a synagogue in Melbourne in December, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a press conference on Tuesday.

Albanese said his government would also designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.

He added the two incidents were "attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community".

Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and three other officials have been ordered to leave Australia, which has withdrawn its own diplomats from Tehran. Iran has not yet commented.

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) chief Mike Burgess said Iran had "sought to disguise its involvement" in the attack on the Lewis Continental Kitchen in Sydney on 20 October, and Melbourne's Adass Israel Synagogue on 6 December.

"They're just using cut-outs, including people who are criminals and members of organised crime gangs to do their bidding or direct their bidding," Mr Burgess told reporters.

Intelligence services had also found Iran was likely to be behind other antisemitic incidents in Australia, which has seen attacks on Jewish schools, homes, vehicles and synagogues since the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, Iran's ally, and the ensuing war in Gaza.

In the same period of time, civil society group the Islamophobic Register has also recorded a rise in Islamophobic incidents.

Police first indicated they were looking into the possibility that attacks on Jewish-linked property were being directed by "overseas actors or individuals" back in January.

The findings revealed on Tuesday were "deeply disturbing", Albanese said, describing the two incidents as "extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression".

In the second incident, a number of worshippers were forced to flee as the fire took hold of the synagogue, which was built by Holocaust survivors in the 1960s.

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