Revealed: Iranian Arashi Rahbari behind pro-Hezbollah rally calls Australia ‘a tyrannical terrorist regime’

A pro-Hezbollah activist who led a march through Melbourne last weekend waving the terrorist group’s flag and chanting pro-Hamas and pro-Houthis slogans is an Iranian national who believes Australia is a pathetic ‘tyrannical terrorist regime’ | WATCH

Arashi Rahbari at a pro-Palestine rally for Gaza and Lebanon in Melbourne on Sunday. Picture: AAP

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A pro-Hezbollah activist who led a march through Melbourne last weekend waving the terrorist group’s flag and chanting pro-Hamas and pro-Houthi slogans can be identified as an Iranian national who believes Australia is a pathetic “tyrannical terrorist regime”.

The Australian has confirmed Arashi Rahbari was one of the leaders of the provocative pro-Hezbollah rally staged to mourn the loss of slain terrorist Hassan Nasrallah.

Mr Rahbari, who lives in Melbourne and is an Iranian national, was spotted on Sunday wearing a shirt with Hezbollah’s paraphernalia while waving the terrorist flag, strapped to another Iranian flag. The emergence of an Iranian national as a local pro-Hezbollah leader underlines the challenge facing Australia in dealing with the fallout from the October 7 terrorist attack in Israel and the war that has since erupted.

As Mr Rahbari was identified, the Australian Federal Police’s Counter Terrorism and Special Investigations Command Centre established Operation Ardvarna to look into the prohibited display of symbols in public spaces by nine individuals in Melbourne at the weekend rally.

The probe comes as one of the Hezbollah flag-bearing activists revealed by The Australian as Yousif Tiba declared he was “not scared of police” while celebrating the terror group as a “resistance organisation”.

Mr Rahbari attended the violent Land Forces protest in September and was filmed by The Australian chanting “Hamas, Houthis, Hezbollah, Mashallah” and “Labayka ya Khomeini”, meaning “I’m at your service, ­Khomeini” or “Here I am, Khomeini”. He was wearing a white cap with a picture of a Hamas terrorist and a white shirt of the former supreme leader of Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini.

Rahbari taking part in the Land Forces protest in Melbourne. Picture: Mohammad Alfares

In a conversation with The Australian at the Land Forces protest, Mr Rahbari identified himself as an Iranian national but declined an interview.

Khomeini was the architect of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was founded on his vision of governance rooted in Shia Islam, known as “Velayat-e Faqih” (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist). After the revolution, he became Iran’s supreme leader, the highest political and religious authority, and held this position until his death in 1989. He was not a listed terrorist in Australia.

In an image Mr Rahbari shared on social media featuring a protest where several men were holding a yellow Hezbollah flag, Mr Rahbari called Australia a “pathetic tyrannical terrorist regime”. Another caption he wrote states: “I will not bow down to Australian terrorist regime! Get fd mate!! Mashallah Hezbollah labaik ya Nasrallah.”

A social media post by Rahbari.

It’s unclear whether Mr Rahbari is a visa-holder or an Australian citizen.

The department of Home Affairs would not disclose any information on individual residents, citing privacy reasons.

Mr Rahbari’s face was plastered on the front page of The Australian on Monday in a striking image of him leading the pro-Hezbollah rally in Melbourne.

The Australian has attempted to contact him for comment on Thursday, while the AFP, Victoria Police and the Department of Home Affairs and Trade declined to confirm whether they were aware of his actions.

DFAT said they requested state police to check the visa status of anyone they arrested or charged and inform them if anyone was a visa holder.

“If police raise concerns about visa holders, we will then consider cancellations,” a DFAT spokesperson said.

Mr Tiba, a 30-year-old Shia Muslim creative arts student at Griffith University, paraded through Melbourne streets at the pro-Hezbollah rally alongside Mr Rahbari at the weekend.

Pro-Palestinian activist Yousif Teeba. Picture: Mohammad Alfares.

He told The Australian exclusively that “Hezbollah as a resistance group against Israel has my support”.

The Iranian ambassador to Australia, Ahmad Sadeghi, also remembered slain Hezbollah leader Nasrallah as a “remarkable leader” and a “prominent standard-bearer”, despite his decades-long reign of terror in the Middle East.

Mr Sadeghi said the “blessed martyr”, who was a designated terrorist around the world, had a dignified path to heaven and described his leadership as an ongoing struggle against “the vile entity of the Zionist regime”.

“Following the martyrdom of Sayyed (sir) Hassan Nasrallah, the honourable secretary-general of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Islamic Resistance Front and the Muslim world have lost a great personality, a prominent standard-bearer, and a remarkable leader,” Mr Sadeghi wrote. “However, his path in the struggle against the oppression and occupation of the criminal Zionist regime will continue to have many followers.

“Undoubtedly, the path of this blessed martyr in the struggle against the tyrants and oppressors of the time will endure and bear fruit, and the vile entity of the Zionist regime will not remain triumphant or complacent from this crime.”

A spokesperson for Foreign Minister Penny Wong has condemned the comments but resisted calls to expel the top Iranian diplomat, despite pressure from the opposition.

Senator Wong said Australia had maintained a diplomatic relationship with Iran “continuously since 1968”; this was not an endorsement of the nation’s regime but because it was in Australia’s national interest to do so.

“In all of that time, it has never been an endorsement of the regime, it is a channel to protect Australia’s interests and to communicate the views of Australia and our close partners,” her spokesperson said.

Despite this, Senator Wong’s office hit back against Mr Sadeghi’s comments.

“The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister have made clear that the government condemns any support for terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah,“ she said. “We condemn the ambassador’s comments.“

The comments led to a rebuke from the opposition’s foreign affairs spokesman, Simon Birmingham, who called on the top Iranian diplomat to be expelled.

“The Iranian ambassador may enjoy diplomatic privileges but he is still a guest in our country and it’s time for the invitation to be withdrawn,” he said.

“All previous ‘talkings to’ by the Albanese government have been woefully ineffective. The time for nice chats is over and the time for Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong to show leadership by declaring the Iranian ambassador persona non grata is now.”