{"id":78661,"date":"2023-03-31T06:05:45","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T19:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=78661"},"modified":"2023-04-16T20:58:14","modified_gmt":"2023-04-16T10:58:14","slug":"australia-should-harden-its-response-to-irans-hostility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-should-harden-its-response-to-irans-hostility\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia should harden its response to Iran\u2019s hostility"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

The people responsible for Australia\u2019s security are fully aware of the Iranian regime\u2019s activities targeting Australians, at home and abroad.<\/p>\n

An Iranian plot against a dissident living in Australia was foiled by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation in 2022. Home Affairs Minister Clare O\u2019Neil announced<\/a>\u00a0in February that late last year, \u2018ASIO disrupted the activities of individuals who had conducted surveillance of the home of an Iranian Australian, as well as extensive research of this individual and their family.\u2019 This followed evidence<\/a> to a parliamentary inquiry in January that Iran was behind a series of cyberattacks on Australian entities in an attempt to steal data to be used for extortion.<\/p>\n

ASIO Director General Mike Burgess referred<\/a> to both plots while presenting the 2023 national threat assessment last month, although he didn\u2019t mention Iran by name. Yet Burgess sounded a warning very relevant to the Iranian case, saying: \u2018Australia is facing an unprecedented challenge from espionage and foreign interference and I\u2019m not convinced we, as a nation, fully appreciate the damage it inflicts on Australia\u2019s security, democracy, sovereignty, economy and social fabric.\u2019<\/p>\n

Tehran\u2019s hostility is also manifested through the arbitrary arrests, based on fabricated evidence, of Australians who travel to Iran. This is part of the Iranian\u2019s regime\u2019s hostage-diplomacy strategy\u2014detaining<\/a> innocent foreigners to blackmail their governments.<\/p>\n

Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert<\/a> was arrested in Iran in 2018 and jailed for 804 days in harsh conditions. The case against her was based on groundless accusations. She was freed in November 2020 in a deal that reportedly involved<\/a> the release from prison of the two Iranians behind a 2012 Bangkok terror plot.\u00a0This aggressive and indefensible activity against Australians continues. In November 2022, the media reported<\/a> that an Iranian Australian dual national was jailed in Iran and denied all access to consular support. According to Moore-Gilbert\u2019s testimony<\/a> to a parliamentary inquiry, Iranian agents in Australia monitor movements and activities of Australians who criticise Tehran\u2019s human rights record.<\/p>\n

And these are just examples that have been made public.<\/p>\n

The regime in Tehran has values that are aggressively at odds with Australian democracy. For almost two decades, Australia imposed international and autonomous sanctions<\/a> on Iran.<\/p>\n

Over the past few weeks, Australia has began to impose a new series of sanctions on Iran. On 1 February, Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced<\/a> the application of additional sanctions on \u2018Iranian individuals and entities over abhorrent abuses of human rights\u2019 during the violent suppression of the widespread protests<\/a> sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was imprisoned for wearing her headscarf improperly.<\/p>\n

Australia now sanctions the regime\u2019s Basij militia force and individuals in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. This is significant because the regime is increasingly indistinguishable<\/a> from the IRGC. Notorious for being Iran\u2019s primary mechanism of oppression of its people, and for spreading death and terror, the IRGC is directly under the control of the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei<\/a>. Former IRGC members control the parliament and hold key government positions. The IRGC has become<\/a> \u2018the country\u2019s most powerful military and economic entity\u2019, and its budget has been constantly increasing. Responding to Australia\u2019s sanctions, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson criticised<\/a> Australia\u2019s treatment of its First Nations people.<\/p>\n

Iran is spearheading operations that undermine Australia\u2019s security and the stability of its allies directly and in the Middle East. The IRGC\u2019s elite Quds Force engages<\/a> in subversion across the region and is arming, training, funding and \u2018inspiring\u2019 terrorist organisations in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, \u00a0Bahrain and Gaza.<\/p>\n

Iran has, for years, been engaged in international crime, money laundering<\/a>, drug and weapons smuggling<\/a>, and maritime piracy<\/a>, including numerous attacks on oil tankers. It has, without provocation, bombed strategic energy facilities in neighbouring countries such as Saudi Arabia, and economic centres. Australian navy ships were sent<\/a> to the Persian Gulf in 2019 to protect international waterways against Iranian aggression.<\/p>\n

Tehran harbours international terrorists, open enemies of the West including of Australia, who make Iran their home and headquarters. The UN confirmed<\/a> in February that the current leader of al-Qaeda, Saif al-Adel, resides in Iran, along with other senior members of the organisation.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s drive over decades to produce an indigenous nuclear weapons capability in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is possibly the biggest danger, challenging fundamentals of the rules-based international order which Australia holds dear. The 2015 nuclear deal is no longer a valid mechanism for stopping Iran. The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, warned<\/a>\u00a0in January that Iran has enough fissile material for \u2018several nuclear weapons\u2019, and called the nuclear deal \u2018an empty shell\u2019. IAEA inspectors recently detected uranium in Iran illegally enriched to 84%, just 6 percentage points shy of military-grade uranium used in atomic bombs. The latest IAEA reports indicate<\/a> that Iran is now a whisker away from a nuclear-weapons capability.<\/p>\n

Finally, Iran\u2019s ruling mullahs made a strategic decision to side with Russia<\/a> in its war against Ukraine. Iran has been supplying<\/a> Moscow with deadly drones used by Russian forces, including for actions believed to be war crimes. Iran is now building a plant<\/a> inside Russia to supply more drones. The burgeoning military ties between the two countries mean Tehran has chosen yet again to stand with the aggressors and anti-Western powers that reject Australia\u2019s key values, including its strong support for the victim of unprovoked aggression, Ukraine.<\/p>\n

To protect Australians, Canberra should be in the forefront of the campaign to contain, limit and deter this rogue regime. Australia\u2019s latest decision, on 20 March, to sanction<\/a> dozens of Iranians involved in human rights violations and the supply of drones to Russia for use against Ukraine, is an encouraging sign.<\/p>\n

The biggest step needed is for Australia to fully join in international efforts to stop Iran from achieving its dangerous nuclear dreams. This requires US leadership above all else, and Canberra should let Washington know that Australia is fully committed to any such effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The people responsible for Australia\u2019s security are fully aware of the Iranian regime\u2019s activities targeting Australians, at home and abroad. An Iranian plot against a dissident living in Australia was foiled by the Australian Security …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1120,"featured_media":78668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,247,356,127],"class_list":["post-78661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australia","tag-iran","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-terrorism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAustralia should harden its response to Iran\u2019s hostility | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-should-harden-its-response-to-irans-hostility\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Australia should harden its response to Iran\u2019s hostility | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The people responsible for Australia\u2019s security are fully aware of the Iranian regime\u2019s activities targeting Australians, at home and abroad. 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