October 5, 2024
The Iranian ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi has been hauled in by the government for the second time this year and “reminded of his obligation” after he praised the slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a “remarkable leader.”
Tehran’s top diplomat was called into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra on Friday after The Australian first revealed he called the dead terrorist leader a “prominent standard-bearer”, “remarkable leader”, and a “blessed martyr”.
DFAT has confirmed to The Weekend Australian Mr Sadeghi was called in by the department’s Acting Secretary and Chief of Protocol and “reminded of his obligation to respect Australian law and to stay out of domestic affairs.”
In a social media post last week, Mr Sadeghi said Nasrallah, 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”.
It led to a widespread rebuke from both major political parties, with Peter Dutton calling for his removal, while Anthony Albanese condemned his comments but failed to lay any ground for discipline.
Labor has refused to expel the ambassador despite the inflammatory comments he made on multiple occasions.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson told The Weekend Australian that “a cup of tea at DFAT is hardly going to change his behaviour.”
“A token slap on the wrist for the Iranian Ambassador didn’t work last time so there’s no reason to expect it will this time,” Mr Paterson said.
“Unless the Iranian regime expects actual consequences the Ambassador will continue to disrespect Australia. It’s time the Albanese government showed some strength and sent him home.”
The Opposition Leader said on Friday the ambassador’s comments were “utterly at odds with what is in our country’s best interests” and called on the Albanese government to expel him.
“The Iranian ambassador should be expelled – it frankly should have happened by now, and if it’s not due, then I don't know what he needs to do to justify his expulsion from our country,” Mr Dutton said.
“Do I think the Iranian ambassador should be expelled from our country? Should he be persona non grata? Absolutely, he should.”
In August this year, the Iranian embassy defended its ambassador after he posted about a “Zionist plague”, denying it was anti-Semitic and describing the Albanese government’s response as “conversations we had on how to manage the current conditions” in the Middle East rather than a dressing-down.
When Mr Sadeghi posted his controversial tweet, the Prime Minister said the government had summoned him to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) “as a protocol”. In the post, which remains on his X platform, Mr Sadeghi called Israel a “genocidal regime” and said he looked forward to the only Jewish state being “wiped out of the holy lands of Palestine”.
He also called the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel an act of resistance “in fighting the criminal Zionist enemy”.
The Australian asked the embassy whether Mr Sadeghi’s conversation with the DFAT was of disciplinary nature. A spokesperson for the ambassador said they were “in the vein of a range of bilateral, regional, and international subject matters”.
Mr Sadeghi and the Iranian embassy in Canberra were approached for comment but declined to comment.
