ASIO director-general Mike Burgess:

In this year’s annual threat assessment, I warned Australia’s complex, challenging and changing security environment is becoming more dynamic, diverse and degraded.

Dynamic because we’re confronting an increasing number of threats. Diverse because some nation states are using criminal proxies are using politically motivated violence.

Degraded because authoritarian regimes are more willing to engage in reckless actions. All three of these characteristics apply in this case.

For the past 10 months, anti-Semitism has been one of ASIO’s most pressing priorities, involving the full use of its capabilities and powers. We have investigate dozens of incidents. ASIO now assesses the Iranian government directed at least two and likely more attacks on Jewish interests in Australia. Our painstaking investigation uncovered and unpicked the links between the alleged crimes and the commanders in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC.

The IRGC used a complex web of proxies to hide its involvement. This is the kind of boundary blurring I warned about earlier this year. It’s important to understand that ASIO is both a collecting of intelligence and an assessor of intelligence. Form assessments are not done quickly or taken lightly. Our analysts carefully weight and wait every piece of intelligence.

Their conclusions are clear. ASIO is still investigating possible Iranian involvement in a number of other attacks, but I want to stress we do not believe the regime is responsible for every act of anti-Semitism in Australia.

It goes without saying that Iran’s actions are unacceptable. They put lives at risk, they terrified the community and they tore at our social fabric. Iran and its proxies lit the matches and fanned the flames. I want to assure all Australians that ASIO and our law enforcement partners take these matters extremely seriously. We do not just have the right to be safe, you have the right to feel safe.