Iranian agents directed arson attacks on Jewish targets in Australia, spy chief reveals

ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess revealed that Iran's Revolutionary Guard directed two 2024 antisemitic arson attacks in Sydney and Melbourne using offshore agents with Australian ties. The disclosures, part of a stark annual threat assessment, highlight a degrading security environment where Australia faces compounding threats. These include foreign interference, espionage targeting AUKUS secrets, and rapid online radicalisation, underscored by a December 2025 mass shooting at Bondi Beach that killed 15 people.

IRGC attacks on Jewish targets

• ▪The former Australian resident who directed the Melbourne synagogue attack was arrested and imprisoned in Iraq following pressure from Australian and local law enforcement
• ▪An Australian citizen living in Iran and serving as a senior agent for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force orchestrated the October 2024 firebombing of Lewis' Continental Kitchen in Sydney
• ▪Australia expelled Iran's ambassador in August 2025 after accusing Tehran of directing the two antisemitic arson attacks in Sydney and Melbourne
• ▪A former Australian resident living in Iraq and recruited by Iran through Iraqi-based militia groups directed the December 2024 firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne

Foreign interference operations in Australia

• ▪A foreign government seeking to silence critics coerced eight people, including five Australians, to return to their place of birth by detaining and interrogating their family members
• ▪At least five foreign regimes are targeting Australians with coerced repatriations, including one government that conducted a 10-year intimidation campaign against an individual

Espionage targeting Aukus details

• ▪An Australian security clearance holder was targeted by a foreign spy posing as a consulting firm employee, who successfully obtained two reports before the operation was disrupted
• ▪Foreign spies are targeting classified information regarding Australia's AUKUS nuclear submarine partnership with the United States and Great Britain

Asio threat assessment speech

• ▪The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation has foiled 31 major terrorism plots since 2014 and resolved over a dozen major terror-related cases since December 2025
• ▪Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Director-General Mike Burgess delivered an annual threat assessment warning that Australia faces concurrent, cascading, and compounding national security threats

Rising antisemitism violent extremism

• ▪An antisemitic mass shooting at Bondi Beach in December 2025 killed 15 people during a Jewish Hanukkah celebration, carried out by two gunmen allegedly inspired by the Islamic State
• ▪An independent inquiry into antisemitism in Australia noted a drop in the share of funding allocated for counter-terrorism investigations

Social cohesion community tolerance

• ▪Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Director-General Mike Burgess stated that the temperature of Australia's security environment would lower if more Australians embraced mutual respect, tolerance, and a 'fair go'
• ▪Social media and encrypted chat platforms are accelerating the radicalisation of minors within weeks, eroding trust in institutions, and amplifying grievance narratives