The people responsible for Australia’s security are fully aware of the Iranian regime’s activities targeting Australians, at home and abroad.
An Iranian plot against a dissident living in Australia was foiled by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation in 2022. Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil announced in February that late last year, ‘ASIO disrupted the activities of individuals who had conducted surveillance of the home of an Iranian Australian, as well as extensive research of this individual and their family.’ This followed evidence to a parliamentary inquiry in January that Iran was behind a series of cyberattacks on Australian entities in an attempt to steal data to be used for extortion.
ASIO Director General Mike Burgess referred to both plots while presenting the 2023 national threat assessment last month, although he didn’t mention Iran by name. Yet Burgess sounded a warning very relevant to the Iranian case, saying: ‘Australia is facing an unprecedented challenge from espionage and foreign interference and I’m not convinced we, as a nation, fully appreciate the damage it inflicts on Australia’s security, democracy, sovereignty, economy and social fabric.’
Tehran’s hostility is also manifested through the arbitrary arrests, based on fabricated evidence, of Australians who travel to Iran. This is part of the Iranian’s regime’s hostage-diplomacy strategy—detaining innocent foreigners to blackmail their governments.
Read the article by Ran Porat in The Strategist.