Australia's spy chief warns of rising threat from Iran-backed terrorism

Australia’s domestic spy chief has warned that Iran-backed violence is becoming a more serious security concern, even as the national terrorism threat level remains at probable for now.

ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess delivered the warning on June 24 in his annual threat assessment. He said Australia’s security environment has deteriorated and that the terrorism picture is worsening.

Burgess also said the formal threat label should not be read as a low-risk assessment. According to reporting on the speech, he said ASIO does not have intelligence about a specific imminent attack, but that the broader risk is higher than the current designation may suggest.

The warning puts Iran-linked activity, antisemitic extremism and domestic security pressure into the same frame. It also raises the stakes for Jewish Australians and Jewish institutions, which reporting said were central to the concern Burgess described.

What Burgess said

AP reported that Burgess said an Iranian Revolutionary Guard-linked network directed arson attacks on Jewish targets in Sydney and Melbourne in 2024 through operatives with past ties to Australia.

The Guardian reported that Burgess said an Australian citizen working for Iran allegedly orchestrated the Bondi firebombing.

That report also said a former Australian resident in Iraq is accused of directing an antisemitic attack on a Melbourne synagogue in 2024.

The Financial Times said Burgess warned Iran views Australia as a legitimate target and that Iran-backed groups could expand violence into arson, vandalism and assassinations.

Burgess also said online radicalization is making attacks harder to predict, adding another layer of risk to an already more volatile threat environment.

Chronology of the threat

The incidents now at the center of the reporting took place in 2024. Later reporting identified a Sydney kosher business arson attack on October 20, 2024, and a Melbourne synagogue firebombing on December 6, 2024.

Those events were later discussed against the backdrop of Australia’s decision in November 2025 to formally list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a state sponsor of terrorism, according to government material cited in later reporting.

On June 24, 2026, Burgess used his annual assessment to place those incidents within a broader warning about foreign-backed violence, espionage, cyber sabotage and extremist threats.

Early coverage of the speech appeared later the same day, and subsequent reports added detail about the alleged operational chain and the targets involved.

Security and political stakes

The warning has immediate implications for Jewish Australians and Jewish institutions, which were singled out in the reporting as likely targets of Iran-linked violence.

It also adds pressure on the Australian government to respond to a more complex domestic threat environment that now includes foreign interference and extremist violence alongside traditional counterterrorism concerns.

The attribution to Iranian-linked operatives carries diplomatic consequences as well, especially if authorities continue to confirm the operational chain described in the reporting.

Even so, ASIO is not raising the terrorism threat level above probable. Burgess’s point was that the current label should not be mistaken for a benign security picture.

What comes next

The next questions are whether ASIO will publish the full speech or transcript, and whether it will name additional alleged operatives or provide more detail on the attacks.

Watch for responses from the prime minister, the home affairs minister or the foreign minister, as well as any further police or prosecutorial action.

Further reporting may also show whether the government changes its counterterrorism posture or whether Burgess’s warning becomes the basis for a broader policy response.

For now, the assessment marks a sharper public warning from Australia’s domestic intelligence agency: the terrorism threat remains probable, but the underlying risk is widening.