Iranian ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi praised the nation as he left the country after being expelled. File Photo by Lukas Coch/EPA
Ahmad Sadeghi, Iran’s ambassador to Australia, offered praise Thursday despite being ordered to leave due to alleged arson attacks by Iranian agents.
“I love the Australian nation,” Sadeghi said as he arrived at Sydney Airport. “I had a very wonderful time.”
Australia expelled Sadghi due to allegations that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind acts of anti-Semitic arson on Australian soil.
The first ambassador to be expelled from Australia since World War II, he was given a 72-hour deadline to leave.
“[The Australian Security Intelligence Organization] has now gathered enough intelligence to reach a deeply disturbing conclusion that the Iranian government directed at least two of these attacks,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday during a press conference.
Iran was alleged to have directed agents to set fires at Adass Israel Synagogue of Melbourne in December of 2024, after doing the same at the Lewis’ Continental Kitchen restaurant in Sydney only two months earlier.
Sadeghi has denied the allegations but then struck a publicly positive tone.
“Now that, with the successful completion of over [two] years of my mission full of positive achievements as the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Australia, I am heading towards my beloved, dear and proud country Iran,” Sadeghi posted to X Thursday.
“I wish a successful future full of pride for the government and people of Iran,” he concluded. “And independence and sovereign governance for the people of Australia.”
