Sunrise host Nat Barr has confronted Foreign Minister Penny Wong over her failure to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorists, despite being urged to do so more than two years ago.
It comes in the wake of revelations Iran was responsible for at least two antisemitic fire-bombings on Australian soil.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said spy agency ASIO had determined Iran was behind fires at Lewis Continental Kitchen in Sydney on October 20, as well as the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne last December.
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Barr asked Wong about a letter she signed two-and-half years ago, refusing to designate the IRGC as a terrorist group.
The letter was raised during an earlier exchange between Opposition foreign affairs spokesperson Michaelia Cash and Labor government minister Clare O’Neil, who was also a signatory on the letter — which was a reply to a Coalition missive warning of the IRGC.
Barr asked: “The Coalition wrote to you over a year ago, saying you should dismiss the ambassador, you should list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation then. What’s your response?”
Wong replied: “First in relation to the IRGC they are already sanctioned. I have put more sanctions on them. In fact, we have put more sanctions and taken more decisive action, stronger action against Iran, than ever occurred while (Cash) was attorney-general or while the government of which she was a part was in government.
“The second (point) in relation to the ambassador, yes, he has made antisemitic remarks which are unacceptable. And we dealt with that.
“The reason we have expelled him now is because the Iranian regime has crossed a line. The Iranian regime has crossed a line and that is why we are taking the unprecedented action we are taking.”
Sunrise co-host Matt Shirvington asked about the threat level to Australia now the ambassador has been expelled.
Wong replied: “We will always act to assure Australians’ safety. We have very effective law enforcement personnel, intelligence agencies, security agencies who are working day and night to keep Australians safe and I want to thank them for their work.
“The fact that we have uncovered this, the fact that ASIO, with the AFP and others, have uncovered this and provided that assessment to government should give Australians continued confidence in our security agencies.
“Obviously the investigations continue. The law enforcement efforts continue. The Director-General made that clear yesterday, that it’s possible that the Iranian regime is linked to other attacks.
“We will continue to ensure that we take action against these actors. We want all Australians to be safe and feel safe. We particularly are thinking of Jewish Australians today, for whom obviously these attacks were so traumatic.”
Barr asked if this meant relations with Iran were “effectively over”, or if there was still room for democracy.
Wong replied: “It’s very challenging in these circumstances given what has happened. We’ve had an embassy in Iran and a diplomatic relationship since 1968.
“We have retained some working-level diplomats, Iranian working diplomats in Australia.
“We do that because there are still consular issues we have to deal with Iranian-Australians who are either in Iran or in Australia, but obviously we are in a very challenging place in the diplomatic relationship.
“We will continue to act professionally. The message is very clear to Iran: ‘You crossed a line, we cannot countenance it. This is the action we are taking’.
“We took from the ASIO assessment a very clear understanding that we have a foreign government who was working to engage in and orchestrate violent attacks on Australians on Australian soil.
“Unacceptable. So, we have made an unprecedented decision to expel an ambassador for the first time since World War II.
“Now, we retain diplomatic relations with a lot of countries we don’t agree with it. We do it for our interests and also because of Australians in those countries as well as the capacity to engage with them.
“This crossed a line. That is why we’ve taken this unprecedented decision. We’ve also suspended our operations in Tehran and removed Australian personnel there.”
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