Iran terror hits home for Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin as ASIO explores ‘many more’ attacks
ASIO is actively investigating if an attack on the former Sydney home of Alex Ryvchin was ordered by Iran amid a warning that it’s believed to be behind ‘many’ anti-Semitic crimes in Australia.
ASIO is actively investigating whether an attack on the former Sydney home of Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin was ordered by Iran amid a stark government warning that Tehran is believed to be behind “many” anti-Semitic crimes in Australia.
A day after Anthony Albanese revealed Iran’s Islamist regime masterminded last year’s firebombings of Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue and a kosher cafe in Sydney, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said: “We have announced the two, but we suspect many more.”
The Australian can reveal the attack on the former Dover Heights home of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO, which saw two cars firebombed and graffiti sprayed on the property, is one of a number of such crimes being examined for links to the Iranian regime.
The investigation comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who last week said Mr Albanese was a “weak” leader – welcomed the government’s expulsion of Iran’s ambassador and its move to list the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.
“This a first step – and hopefully not the last,” he said on his Hebrew-language X account.
Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, accused Mr Albanese of punishing his country to please Israel, declaring the government “should know better than to appease a government led by war criminals”.
Iran’s envoy in Canberra, Ahmad Sadeghi, was seen leaving the soon-to-be-shuttered Iranian embassy on Wednesday morning, hours after the Prime Minister said his masters in Tehran had conducted an “attack against Australia”.
Mr Sadeghi, who has been declared persona non grata and given until next Monday to leave the country, declined to answer questions when approached by The Australian.
NSW Police’s Strike Force Pearl arrested a 37-year-old man, Leon Sofilas, in February over the January 17 arson and graffiti attack on Mr Ryvchin’s former home.
A court heard Mr Sofilas, who was already on remand over the attempted firebombing of a Sydney synagogue, had a “lengthy” criminal record.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said on Tuesday that Iran used a web of intermediaries and criminals-for-hire to carry out the attacks on the Adass Israel Synagogue and Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Bondi.
It is understood that investigators believe the attack on Mr Ryvchin’s former home involved a number of individuals who each had different roles in committing the crime.
According to a source familiar with the incident but not authorised to disclose details, one person sourced a car, another obtained a jerry can and a third purchased the fuel used to douse the vehicles that were set alight.
“That is the modus operandi of crime for a service,” another source said.
Investigators have not yet concluded the attack was linked to Iran, but its “highly compartmentalised” planning points to an organised terrorist attack.
Mr Burke’s comment that “many more” Iranian-ordered attacks were suspected went further than the ASIO boss, who said on Tuesday “it is likely Iran directed further attacks as well”.
“ASIO is still investigating possible Iranian involvement in a number of other attacks, but I want to stress we do not believe the regime is responsible for every act of anti-Semitism in Australia,” Mr Burgess said.
The Prime Minister said on Wednesday that the investigation that revealed Iran ordered the attacks was “overwhelmingly” an Australian one, but did not rule out the prospect that ASIO received support from Israel’s renowned intelligence service, Mossad.
Israeli media speculated that Mossad played a role in exposing Iran’s links to anti-Semitic attacks in Australia, pointing to its “clear track record” in supporting ASIO.
Its co-operation with ASIO in 2017 foiled a plot to blow up a flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi.
Mr Albanese said: “Of course, intelligence agencies talk to each other, but … credit where credit’s due (goes) to Director-General Mike Burgess and to our friends in ASIO. This is something that Australians should be really proud of.”
After Sussan Ley initially backed the government’s handling of the Iran revelations, the Coalition went on the attack, questioning why the government hadn’t acted earlier to list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.
Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said Mr Albanese “should have apologised to Australians for not heeding the opposition’s calls over 2½ years ago when we told him this should be done”. But the Prime Minister hit back, seizing on opposition home affairs spokesman Andrew Hastie’s admission that he had unsuccessfully pushed the Morrison government to declare the IRGC as a terror group.
“What we have done is take advice from the intelligence agencies. That came through on Monday. We had appropriate meetings and acted like adults in the national interest,” Mr Albanese said.
The move to prescribe the IRGC will require special legislation because, unlike other terror organisations listed by the government, it is an arm of a nation state. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister revealed more details of the escape from Iran of Australia’s diplomats, likening it to the rescue of US embassy staff during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, as told in the 2012 film Argo.
He said the government swung into action when it received ASIO’s assessment on Monday that Iran was involved in at least two of the attacks on Australian soil.
“We needed to get our diplomats out whilst making sure that that was done discreetly, and we got them out of (Iranian) airspace just after midnight on Monday night,” Mr Albanese said.
“That put us in a position then on Tuesday to … notify (the Australian people).”
The shuttering of Australia’s embassy in Iran and the expulsion of Iran’s ambassador effectively severs the nations’ diplomatic relations.
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