{"id":175503,"date":"2026-06-24T13:03:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T13:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/175503\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T13:03:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T13:03:32","slug":"spy-chief-says-iran-agents-lived-in-australia-before-directing-arson-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/175503\/","title":{"rendered":"Spy chief says Iran agents lived in Australia before directing arson attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard used two agents who once lived in Australia to direct arson attacks against Jewish targets in Sydney and Melbourne, the head of Australia\u2019s domestic spy agency said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran continues to view Australia as a legitimate target for covertly directed acts of violence,\u201d Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), said.<\/p>\n

Australia last year blamed Iran<\/a> for fires that damaged Lewis\u2019 Continental Kitchen, a kosher eatery in Sydney, and Melbourne\u2019s Adass Israel Synagogue<\/a> two months apart in 2024.<\/p>\n

A major diplomatic rift led to Iran\u2019s ambassador being expelled. Tehran denies the allegations.<\/p>\n

Burgess, presenting his annual update on national security threats, said that an Australian citizen based in Iran directed the Sydney firebombing, while a former Australian resident living in Iraq had directed the Melbourne attack.<\/p>\n

He did not name the suspects to protect ongoing investigations and criminal prosecutions.<\/p>\n

The Australian citizen was a Revolutionary Guard senior agent running its networks around the world, Burgess said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Iran had recruited the former Australian resident through Iraqi-based militia groups. The Revolutionary Guard had valued his criminal connections and supported his continuing crimes, Burgess said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat changed dramatically after ASIO publicly named Iran\u2019s involvement in the arsons,\u201d Burgess said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis person\u2019s Iranian backers lost their enthusiasm and after further pressure from Australian and local law enforcement, they threw him in prison,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Burgess described the investigation into the Sydney and Melbourne attacks as \u201cone of the most difficult and detailed in recent ASIO history.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had previously said that the Revolutionary Guard was suspected as being behind other antisemitic crimes in Australia since the start of Israel\u2019s war against Hamas in 2023.<\/p>\n

Several people are facing charges<\/a> in connection with the arson attacks. It remains unclear whether they were aware who they were working for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard used two agents who once lived in Australia to direct arson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[719,2371,14401,4282,1648,1105,3368,197,34,61,196,34947,34879,7338,6815,82],"class_list":["post-175503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","tag-arson","tag-assault","tag-australia","tag-crime","tag-fires","tag-general-news","tag-iran","tag-iran-government","tag-iran-war","tag-melbourne","tag-mike-burgess","tag-race-and-ethnicity","tag-sydney","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116805226214844904","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}