Australian intelligence traced the funding behind a Melbourne synagogue arson attack to Iran, prompting the expulsion of Tehran’s ambassador and the withdrawal of Canberra’s diplomats.
Australia has confirmed that the Iranian regime directed a synagogue arson attack in Melbourne, marking a dramatic escalation in Tehran’s covert operations abroad.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed that investigators uncovered financial trails linking the December 6 firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue—worth an estimated $20 million—to Iranian operatives. “Criminals were being used as tools of the Iranian regime,” Albanese said, adding that Australia had expelled Iran’s ambassador and withdrawn its diplomats from Tehran in response.
The attack came under fresh scrutiny after CCTV footage showed three masked figures unloading fuel containers before torching the synagogue while people were still inside.
On Wednesday, 20-year-old Younes Ali Younes appeared before Melbourne’s Magistrates Court, charged with arson, endangering lives, and vehicle theft. His co-accused, 21-year-old Giovanni Laulu, faces the same charges. Neither has entered a plea.
Officials stressed the attackers may not have realized they were serving Iran’s interests. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke explained:
“You have a series of intermediaries so that people performing different actions don’t in fact know who is directing them.”
ASIO chief Mike Burgess warned that Iran may have been behind additional clandestine operations in Australia, echoing European intelligence reports of Tehran’s use of criminal proxies for sabotage and terror abroad.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry has denied the allegations, but Western intelligence agencies have repeatedly identified Tehran’s growing reliance on covert networks to strike Jewish and Israeli targets globally.
Australia’s expulsion of Iran’s envoy marks one of the sharpest diplomatic rebukes against Tehran in recent years—and underscores mounting concern over Iran’s global reach.
