TEHRAN: The Iranian foreign ministry on Sunday denounced a “violent attack” in Sydney that targeted a Jewish celebration and killed 11 people.
“We condemn the violent attack in Sydney, Australia. Terror and killing of human beings, wherever committed, is rejected and condemned,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on X.
Relations between Iran and Australia have significantly deteriorated this year.
In August, Canberra blamed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for two 2024 arson attacks targeting its Jewish community.
The arson attacks targeted a kosher restaurant in Sydney and a synagogue in Melbourne but caused no casualties.
Following the attacks, Canberra declared the Iranian ambassador persona non grata and gave him and three other Iranian diplomats a week to leave the country. It also recalled its own ambassador and suspended the activities of its embassy in Tehran.
Iran condemned the move and vowed “reciprocal action”.
In November, the Australian government designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terror-sponsoring group. Iran’s foreign ministry called the move “an insulting and unjustified act” and a “violation of international legal rules and norms related to the national sovereignty of states.”
In June, arch foes Iran and Israel engaged in a direct war after a year of tit-for-tat strikes in the aftermath of the Gaza war. That war, which lasted 12 days, saw Israel attacking Iranian military and nuclear sites, as well as residential areas, killing over a thousand people.
Iran responded with drone and missile attacks on Israel that killed dozens.
The United States briefly joined the conflict with strikes on Iranian nuclear sites before a ceasefire was reached.
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