ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Australian parliament on Thursday passed bills enabling the government to add Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to its national terror list, after Canberra accused Tehran of orchestrating several attacks on Australia’s Jewish community.

The amendments to Australia’s Criminal Code, detailed in a report released by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, allows foreign state entities “specifically Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)” to be listed as “state sponsors of terrorism.”

The emphasis on the IRGC is due to claims that the forces directed “attacks in Australia [demonstrating] the lengths that foreign state entities will go to in an attempt to cause harm to Australia,” according to the report, which said that the amendment to the criminal code aims to “hold these actors… to account.”

Iranian state media denounced the decision as a “hostile” and “anti-Iranian” move.

The Australian government in August announced it was expelling the Iranian ambassador to Canberra and suspending its embassy’s operations in Tehran, accusing the Iranian government of orchestrating "at least two" antisemitic attacks on Australia's Jewish community: One on a cafe in Sydney in October 2024, and another targeting a synagogue in Melbourne in December 2024.

Tehran firmly rejected the Australian government’s accusations, with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stating that the claims “make zero sense,” and accusing Canberra of appeasing “a regime led by war criminals,” referencing Israel.