Labor defends Iran embassy move after diplomat expelled
A Labor minister has dismissed criticism of the PM’s handling of the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador, which has left some staff remaining in the embassy.
Labor minister Murray Watt has dismissed accusations that the Albanese government took too long to list the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp as a terrorist organisation, as he defended the decision not to expel the entirety of the staff employed in Iran’s Australian embassy.
Senator Watt was adamant Labor had “taken action” and pointed to the fact that legislation had previously prevented government-linked organisations from being listed.
“That will change now by amending this legislation,” he said.
Interviewed on Sky News on Sunday, Senator Watt also warned Australians from travelling to Iran.
“For some time now, it has had those sorts of warnings on the Smart Traveller website, so I wouldn’t be encouraging too many people to seek visas through the Iranian embassy right now,” he said.
Senator Watt said the decision to keep a small number of Iranian diplomatic staff in Australia was a practical one.
“The reality is we need to be able to have some contact with Iran and … that justifies, you know, not kicking out the entire staff of the embassy” he said.
Six diplomats and an ambassador were accredited to the embassy before the Albanese government’s historic decision to expel Iran’s envoy and three staff last week amid “credible intelligence” Tehran directed at least two anti-Semitic attacks in Melbourne and Sydney.
Ahmad Sadeghi’s expulsion was the first time Australia had booted out an ambassador since World War II.
Anthony Albanese said operations at Australia’s embassy in Tehran had been suspended and officials and their families evacuated to a third country.
But the remaining three accredited Iranian diplomats in Canberra will continue to keep their embassy running.
Senator Watts also said the Albanese government wanted new legislation designed to enable the deportation of around 280 members of the NZYQ immigrant cohort to be passed “as soon as it can be”.
On Friday, Australia and Nauru signed a new deal allowing Labor to deport non-citizens whose Australian visas were cancelled on character grounds.
Senator Watt said the number of deportees sent to Nauru would be “scaled up,” rather than being delivered in “one hit”, with the agreement allowing the numbers to increase overtime.
“We would like to get this legislation passed as quickly as we can, but we respect the fact that the Opposition needs time to get their heads around it and pursue questioning in the parliament,” he told Sky News.
NEW RIPPLE EFFECT OF AUSTRALIA SEVERING TIES WITH IRAN
The moment intelligence officials presented Anthony Albanese with “credible evidence” anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne had been directed by Iran, all-but ended one of Australia’s most complicated diplomatic relationships.
The federal government’s immediate decision to expel Iran’s ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi, and list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terror organisation has already had significant security and foreign relations impacts that stretch far beyond Australia’s shores.
But a former senior White House adviser, top Australian security experts and a past head of home affairs have backed the actions, even with the trade-offs and hurdles they trigger.
Though ties with Iran have not been completely severed, the expulsion – a move Australia has not made against any nation since World War II – means the government loses the ability to advance its interests in Tehran, offer consular support and gather on-the-ground information valued by its Five Eyes security partners.
It was a decision not taken lightly – Labor has been criticised by the Coalition and several Jewish Australian groups for not acting sooner to expel Mr Sadeghi given his history of inflammatory remarks – but one the Prime Minister said sent a “clear message” to the Iranian regime its “aggression will not be tolerated”.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the links from the IRGC to last year’s arson attacks on the Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Bondi and Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne’s east showed Iran had “crossed a line”.
It ends an era – under both Labor and Coalition governments – of what former home affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo described as hope Iran might “moderate” their ballistic missile and nuclear programs, and particularly their “sponsorship” and “organisation” of terror attacks.
He said with the IRGC listed as a terror group there’s no going “back to those optimistic days”.
Mr Pezzullo said the government was right to describe the IRGC as crossing a line by directing the anti-Semitic attacks, though argued the terror listing had been a “long time coming”.
He said the challenge has always been in how to draw a “boundary” around the IRGC – an agency of the Iranian government – without designating the entire state as a terrorist entity.
“The head of the IRGC directly reports to Iran’s supreme leader, if you say that part of this government is a terrorist entity … how can you have a relationship with Iran?
“That’s always been the issue.”
Home Affairs and the Attorney-General departments are still drafting the law changes that will enable the Albanese Government to list the IRGC, for which the Coalition has offered bipartisan support.
But designating the IRGC as a terror entity also opens up future questions about whether similarly violent elements associated with regimes in places like Myanmar, Cambodia or Rwanda should also face a listing.
Meanwhile, the shuttering of the Tehran embassy, which was first opened in 1968, will have a significant impact on the government’s ability to offer consular assistance to Australians in Iran.
For example locally-based diplomats had been occasionally able to visit academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert when she was jailed for more than two years, while then-ambassador Lyndall Sachs negotiated directly with Iranian authorities for her release.
For her part, Ms Moore-Gilbert welcomed the “decisive action against a brutal regime”.
Of Australia’s Five Eyes allies, which includes Canada, New Zealand, the US and UK, only the latter still has a physical presence in Iran’s capital Tehran.
US Studies Centre Sydney chief Mike Green has a unique ability to offer insight into how Australia could have contributed to information gathering with its presence in Tehran.
As a former senior White House official who advised the Bush administration on Asia, Mr Green was in charge of co-ordinating North Korea policy, where he said there were parallels with Iran.
“At the time, Australia had representation in Pyongyang in North Korea … and it was very useful for two reasons, which I think would be true for Iran,” he said.
“One was (having allies) being there and feeling the atmosphere, the dynamics and what it felt like on the ground.
“And second was when the North Koreans passed messages to Australia or Britain, we knew that they knew it would go right to the US, and I imagine it’s similar with the Iranians.”
But Mr Green said the “usefulness does not outweigh the importance of protecting Australia’s diplomats” and withdrawing from Tehran in that context was the right move.
North America Liaison Office director and international security and intelligence studies Professor John Blaxland said Iran had a “long track record” of underhanded dealings in Australia, but had been operating “largely below the threshold that the government felt was going to trigger an expulsion”.
He said Australia’s mission in Tehran had primarily been there to advance national interests, but the “utility of that presence has evidently continued to shrink as Iran has maintained its hard line position and continued to pursue its violence against external parties”.
Prof Blaxland said foreign actors interfering in Australian society is something that dates back to the Cold War, but he believes ASIO boss Mike Burgess is “right” to say “there’s a level of activity” from several countries – not just Iran – that is “disconcerting”.
“I’m pretty confident (expelling Iran’s ambassador) is also about telegraphing a message to other would-be perpetrators of illegal activity in Australia, that you better watch out because we are onto you and if you get caught, you will get thrown out,” he said.
Mr Sadeghi and three senior Iranian diplomats left Australia three days after being notified of their expulsion, with the ousted ambassador offering the comment “I love Australian people” as he exited his Canberra residence on Thursday.
Three junior Iranian embassy officials remain in Australia.
The working level diplomats are largely responsible for paperwork, able to assist Australians of Iranian background access things like death certificates for a relative still in Iran rather than needing to return to the country – which remains listed as a “do not travel” destination by DFAT.
More Coverage
Originally published as Labor defends Iran embassy move after diplomat expelled
Join the conversation
Former McLeod’s Daughters star dies
Read more
‘TELL THEM’: Hero’s final words before fearless move at Bondi Beach
Read more