Why Iran Hit Australia

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/08/iran-australia-irgc-terrorist-attacks/684027/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_medium=social&utm_content=edit-promo

Posted by theatlantic

11 comments

  1. Arash Azizi: “According to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Australian security forces have ‘credible intelligence’ linking Iran to several attacks on Australian Jews last year. Iran is specifically accused of organizing an act of arson on a kosher restaurant in Sydney last October and another on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne in December.

    “I took an interest in these attacks when they happened last year, because I suspected that Iran was involved. One might think the assaults were too clumsy and amateurish to have been the work of a state apparatus. But those of us who have tracked the IRGC’s overseas activities through the years recognized the playbook: The militia works with a decentralized network of criminal actors, including drug cartels and crime syndicates, as well as petty thieves here and there. Its targets have long included ordinary Jewish civilians—the best-known incident in this regard was the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people and remains the deadliest terror attack in Argentine history … The point is to intimidate Jews and the West and to show off Iran’s asymmetric capabilities.

    “The Iranian regime’s reasoning here is baffling on its face. The country is risking diplomatic opprobrium and further isolation just to conduct shoddily executed assaults on civilians who pose no threat to it. But like so much else in Iranian politics, the rationale is tied up in the country’s internal divisions. The elements organizing the attacks are ideological. They seek to burnish Iran’s image as an aggressive, revisionist actor, determined to destabilize the West and unconstrained by practical concerns. Inside the regime, this faction competes with a more pragmatic group that prioritizes trade and seeks to improve relations with the West. Those behind the hits on Australian targets may even see their activities as having a dual use: By striking synagogues and restaurants in Western countries, they intimidate their global enemies and help stymie the diplomatic agenda of pragmatists at home.”

    Read more: [https://theatln.tc/BmDToM4H](https://theatln.tc/BmDToM4H)

  5. I mean, its pretty easy without a deep dive.

    Australia is the west, which is bad. Therefore, anything anti semetism good.

  6. I wonder if maybe the embassador planned this. Or someone lower on that totem pole. They usually mainly attack embassies and Israeli companies and ships. They don’t typically attack random Jewish businesses unrelated to Israel.

    Seems like quite a mistake. Especially as they left a ton of clues like a stolen car used for these attacks. And while the synagogue partly burned down the deli arson didn’t do much damage.

    If you look at the attacks in Sweden and Denmark Iran pulled off they aimed at the embassy.

    > A source in SÄPO told CNN two rival Swedish gangs, known as Foxtrot and Rumba, plotted several attacks targeting the Israeli embassy in Stockholm at Iran’s behest last year. They included an attempted attack involving an explosive device on January 31, the foiled attempt on May 16 and the shooting on May 17, as well as what a Swedish prosecutor described as an incident involving gunfire on October 1.

    https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2025/world/iran-israel-swedish-teenagers-shadow-war-intl-invs/

  7. This reeks of false flag. This article’s explanation is purely speculation and wishful thinking. We have no reason to believe anything about this, besides some “credible evidence” that hasn’t been shared. It’s sad

  8. >They seek to burnish Iran’s image as an aggressive, revisionist actor

    That doesn’t make much sense. If the government of Iran was indeed behind this act, this will look like a clear sing of weakness and impotence.

    The government of Israel decapitates you military leadership and nuclear program and you react by attacking random civilians in a far away country with little to no relation to the Israeli goverment? And you antagonize an entirely different country in the process?

  9. The several comments in this thread calling this a false flag are despicable. The Australians wouldn’t take such actions cutting ties with Iran if their evidence wasn’t rock solid here, and the idea that the Jews attacked themselves based on nothing more than a hunch is outright disgusting and reeks of classic antisemitism.

  10. I’m sure they’re trying this in every western country. But they had a success in aus and/or ASIO had a success in catching them.

  11. Did Iran take responsibly for this attack ? Or is this some unofficial they did it situation.

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