August 6, 2024
Iran’s ambassador to Australia has received a diplomatic rebuke after making “abhorrent” comments on social media about Israel, Anthony Albanese has confirmed.
Ahmad Sadeghi used social media to call for a “wiping out” of Israelis in Palestine by 2027, while also referring to Israelis as a “Zionist plague”.
The prime minister condemned the comments and confirmed Sadeghi had been called in to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
“There’s no place for the sort of comments that were made … by the Iranian ambassador,” Albanese told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.
“They’re abhorrent, they are hateful, they are antisemitic and they have no place.”
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, echoed the sentiment, saying the remarks were inconsistent with national values.
“Those comments are inflammatory and they’re repugnant, and they do not represent Australia,” she said.
But the opposition home affairs spokesman, James Paterson, called for the government to take further action and consider declaring Sadeghi as a “persona non grata”, which means he could be recalled to Iran.
“If he wasn’t an ambassador, it’s highly likely (the comments) would fall afoul of Australia’s anti-incitement and racial vilification laws,” he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.
“If he is wantonly breaking the law like that and inciting violence against the community … it is incumbent on the government to take action.”
Tensions have grown in the Middle East after the death of Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran.
Iran has vowed retaliation against Israel after the incident, prompting warnings of the violence in Gaza spreading to nearby nations.
Australians in Lebanon have been urged to leave the country as soon as possible.
“These are dangerous times,” Albanese said.
On 7 October, Hamas – designated a terrorist group by the Australian government – attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
In the months since, Israel has unleashed a bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza that has killed almost 40,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry.
Almost 90% of Gaza’s population of about 1.9 million, has been displaced while 495,000 people are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Peter Dutton has questioned whether Australia should continue sending funds to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), one of the main distributors of aid in Gaza.
UNRWA revealed nine staff members had been fired over potential involvement in the 7 October attack, though it did not provide details about what the individuals had done.
Australia froze funding for the organisation in January following the allegations but resumed its support in March after receiving advice UNRWA was not a terrorist organisation.
Dutton said the new developments were a “breach of faith” and remained firm in his support of Israel.
“People are rightly angry because we’re talking about taxpayers’ dollars here,” he told Sky News. “This is a test for our country to stand up for our values, it’s a test for the west.
“When we see an ally under attack, like we saw in the case of 9/11 or like we saw on the seventh of October in Israel, it’s our obligation to stand with somebody of shared values.”
But the prime minister welcomed the UN’s move as it would help secure the organisation’s integrity.
“It is a good thing that the United Nations have taken this action,” he said.
