Iran ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi, arriving at Sydney Airport before an expulsion deadline, on Thursday rejected as "lies" Australia's accusation that Tehran had directed antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, .
Iranian ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi stands outside his residence, Reuters/Hollie Adams
Iran ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi, arriving at Sydney Airport before an expulsion deadline, on Thursday rejected as "lies" Australia's accusation that Tehran had directed antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, .
Australia gave Sadeghi 72 hours on Tuesday to leave the country, the nation's first expulsion of an ambassador since World War Two. Three other Iranian embassy officials were given seven days to leave.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was briefed by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation on Monday on evidence of payments to criminals that he said linked two attacks, on a synagogue and a kosher restaurant, to offshore individuals and Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
"These are all baseless allegations and lies," Sadeghi told reporters from local television networks Nine and Seven at Sydney Airport on Thursday evening.
Earlier in Canberra, Sadeghi came outside his residence to say goodbye.
"I love Australian people, bye bye," he said, waving to television cameras.
Australia has said it would designate Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation, joining the United States and Canada, which already blacklist the IRGC.
Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney
Britain, France and Germany launched a 30-day process to reimpose U.N. sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme on Thursday, a step likely to stoke tensions two months after Israel and the United States bombed Iran, according to a letter sent by E3 to the U.N. Security Council seen by Reuters.
Israel launched on Wednesday a series of strikes on former army barracks in Kiswa, in the southwestern Damascus countryside, two Syrian army sources and state-run El Ekhbariya TV reported, making it the second attack within 24 hours.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Tuesday that Tehran told Europe's top three powers the revival of the "snapback" mechanism, re-mposing UN sanctions on Iran, will have consequences.
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