TEHRAN: Iran’s ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi, departing Sydney Airport on Thursday before an expulsion deadline, rejected as “lies” Australia’s accusation that Tehran directed antisemitic arson attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.
Australia gave Sadeghi 72 hours on Tuesday to leave the country, marking its first expulsion of an ambassador since World War Two. Three other Iranian embassy officials were ordered to depart within seven days.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was briefed on Monday by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, which cited evidence of payments to criminals allegedly linking two attacks — on a synagogue and a kosher restaurant — to offshore individuals and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
“These are all baseless allegations and lies,” Sadeghi told reporters from local television networks Nine and Seven at Sydney Airport on Thursday evening.
Earlier in Canberra, Sadeghi stepped outside his residence to bid farewell. “I love Australian people, bye bye,” he said, waving to television cameras.
Australia has said it will designate Tehran’s IRGC as a terrorist organisation, joining the United States and Canada, which already blacklist the group.
