Australia has introduced legislation that would, for the first time, allow its government to designate foreign state entities -- including Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) -- as terrorist organizations.
Attorney-General Michelle Rowland presented the bill to Parliament, saying it aims to close a major legal gap in Australia’s counterterrorism framework by permitting the listing of state-backed organizations accused of supporting or conducting terrorist acts.
The move follows findings by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) that the IRGC was involved in two anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne in 2024.
Rowland said the new Criminal Code Amendment (State Sponsors of Terrorism) Bill 2025 would strengthen Australia’s ability to respond to “malicious foreign actors” and serve as a warning to any state seeking to threaten the country through violence or coercion.
“This bill strengthens Australia’s counterterrorism framework, creating an environment in which it is more difficult, more risky, and more costly for foreign actors to cause harm,” she told Parliament.
Under the proposed law, the government would gain the power to list foreign state agencies or entities as state sponsors of terrorism if they are found to have directly or indirectly planned, supported, or financed acts of terrorism against Australia.
Once listed, it would become a criminal offence to collaborate with, fund, or provide material assistance to those entities. Limited exemptions would apply for diplomatic or legal obligations.
The legislation introduces new criminal offences, including preparing or participating in state-sponsored terrorist acts and offering material support to listed state actors. Intelligence and law enforcement agencies would also receive expanded powers to investigate and disrupt suspected state-linked terrorism.
ASIO findings link IRGC to attacks in Australia
The bill comes after a series of actions by Canberra against Tehran. In August, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expelled Iranian Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi following ASIO’s conclusion that the IRGC directed two arson attacks on Jewish sites -- one at a kosher restaurant in Sydney and another at a synagogue in Melbourne.
“ASIO has now gathered enough credible intelligence to reach a deeply disturbing conclusion that the Iranian government directed at least two of these attacks. Iran has sought to disguise its involvement,” Albanese said.
He described the incidents as “extraordinary acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil.”
The proposed law would align Australia more closely with allies such as the United States, which designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization in 2019.
The group, established in 1979 after Iran’s Islamic Revolution, reports directly to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and wields significant military, political, and economic influence at home and abroad. Its Quds Force oversees operations that have supported armed groups in Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, and Syria.
Australia’s move follows its decision last week, along with New Zealand, to implement revived United Nations sanctions on Iran after European powers triggered the snapback mechanism over Tehran’s nuclear program. The sanctions reimposed restrictions on arms, finance, and missile activities.
Canberra has also joined G7 nations in condemning Iran’s repression of dissidents abroad and intimidation of diaspora communities. In September, Australia warned of “transnational repression” targeting journalists and Jewish groups.
Rowland said the latest legislative step reflects Australia’s evolving security environment. “The threats we face are changing,” she said. “This bill ensures that our national security laws remain fit for purpose -- robust, balanced, and capable of protecting all Australians.”
“The wound is very open,” he told Iran International.
“Forty-eight people are still in Gaza, nine from my community. Every time we mark this date, it feels like a funeral all over again.”
Daniel’s grandparents, Oded and Yocheved Lifshitz, were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a community near the Gaza border that lost more than a quarter of its residents that day, killed and captured.
They were lifelong peace activists who ferried Gazan patients to Israeli hospitals and spent decades advocating coexistence.
Yocheved, then 85, was released after 16 days — frail and traumatized. Oded, 83, was shot and dragged unconscious into Gaza, where he later died in captivity.
“He was a journalist, the first (Israeli) to interview Yasser Arafat,” Daniel said. “He warned everyone about Hamas.”
During captivity, Yocheved came face-to-face with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who assured her in Hebrew she would soon be freed.
“She was only released because she was hours from dying,” Daniel said. Even now, he added, “she wakes every morning saying she still feels like she’s in a tunnel.”
Daniel was in Paris when the attack began; his mother and daughter had left the kibbutz just hours earlier. His best friend, Dolev Yahud, was murdered, while Dolev’s sister, Arbel, spent 482 days in captivity before her release.
Although Daniel blames Iran’s longtime backing of Hamas for making the massacre possible, his message this year is clear: no more war.
Earlier this year, Daniel spoke at a two-state solution conference in Paris, where he called for renewed education and engagement between Israelis and Palestinians. “Everything begins with education,” he said.
“We don’t want any war between Israel and Iran,” Daniel said. “Change in Iran must come from the Iranian people.”
But Daniel also directed anger toward Israel’s own leadership, saying years of complacency and misjudgment left the country vulnerable.
“I do blame 100 percent our Prime Minister,” he said. “He’s been the Prime Minister for the last 20 years, and it’s his decision to neglect the diplomatic arena.”
Reflecting on Israel’s past strategy toward Hamas, Daniel said leaders wrongly believed the group could be managed or pacified through financial incentives.
He praised the Iranian diaspora for their empathy and courage. “The only people outside Israel who truly understood our pain were Iranians abroad,” he said. “They know what it’s like to live under terror.”
Standing on Tel Aviv’s Pinsker Street — one of those struck by Iranian missile fire earlier this year — Daniel reflected on resilience. “If we lose compassion, we lose who we are.”
Israel says the attack by Palestinian militants two years ago killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took 251 people captive in Gaza, of whom some 20 are believed to be still alive there.
Palestinian health authorities say Israel's subsequent ground incursion and air attacks have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians.
In Washington, US President Donald Trump said this week that Iran had sent “a very strong signal” it wanted progress toward a Gaza agreement, describing “tremendous progress” in talks.
Iranian spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani responded that Tehran would support any “lasting peace that benefits the people of Palestine and helps stop genocide.”
For Daniel, those diplomatic signals matter most if they lead to the end of the war and the return of the hostages.
“I hope the mark of two years will bring us to a year of healing,” he said. “Not another year of trauma.”
Daniel says he now carries his grandfather’s mission with him — the conviction that peace, empathy, and education are the only weapons strong enough to outlast war.
“Iran’s stablecoin limits will not stop dollar demand — they will only drive it deeper underground,” a Tehran-based economist who did not want to reveal his identity told Iran International.
The Central Bank’s High Council late last month approved a $5,000 annual purchase limit per person and a $10,000 ceiling on total stablecoin holdings.
The rule, announced as the rial plunged to a record low of 1,170,000 per US dollar earlier this month, drew sharp criticism from Iranians using Tether and other digital currencies to protect their assets from geopolitical headwinds.
The slump was triggered by the UN sanctions which resumed late last month after European countries suspicious about Iran's nuclear activities activated the so-called snapback mechanism.
The rial stood slightly below 1,140,000 at the time this report was published.
Even a prominent government official criticized the move.
“A disaster is when policymakers with good intentions, but based on wrong reasons and ignoring evidence, make a decision. The result will be weakening governance, erosion of public trust, a threat to people’s assets and discrediting institutions,” Deputy Minister of Communications Ehsan Chitsaz wrote on X.
Crypto market endangered
Traders contacted by Iran International described the new ceilings as both impractical and punitive. “The government keeps tightening controls because it has no real answer for the collapsing rial,” said Farzad, a 29-year-old trader in Tehran.
“They call it regulation, but it’s just another way to shift the burden onto ordinary people. When markets tumble, traders like us will be trapped — unable to cash out or protect our savings.”
“They’ve also started deciding how much people can spend based on their job status — fifty billion rials if you’re unemployed, 200 billion if you earn a salary,” Parham, a 25-year-old in Tehran, said.
“These limits kill initiative and push everyone toward informal channels.”
Parham referred to another Central Bank directive last week that set tiered limits on rial transactions — 200 billion rials for wage earners, 50 billion for the unemployed, and five billion for inactive entities.
Manipulation risk
The new regulation and a concurrent media campaign were meant to manipulate prices, the economist said.
“The $5,000 Tether cap is not about stability; it’s a cover for manipulation,” he said. “They’re draining liquidity under the guise of regulation and trying to buy time while the rial keeps falling. Fear about frozen assets fuels panic, making people sell at a loss.”
Tasnim, a media outlet linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, reported that “thousands of addresses on the Tether network have so far been frozen and their assets effectively made inaccessible,” calling for tighter oversight of exchanges such as Nobitex.
Black-market growth likely
Other commentators say the measure will only feed a shadow economy. Saeed Reza Moradian of OTC Crypto Exchange warned that such limits “will lead to the spread of rented accounts.”
“A $5,000 annual Tether limit destroys the digital economy. People’s needs won’t disappear — they will just move to opaque and foreign platforms,” wrote a user called Sepideh on X.
Iran International has observed advertisements offering cash for renting national ID numbers, allowing others to exploit the $5,000 per person stablecoin quotas.
Central Bank officials insist the measure is needed to prevent capital flight. Asghar Abolhasani, Secretary of the bank's High Council said users have one month to comply. But crypto traders told Iran International the rule is unenforceable.
“You can’t police digital assets with outdated banking tools,” said Farrokh, a Tehran-based trader. “Once trust is gone, people won’t wait — they’ll take their money abroad in whatever form they can.”
Failing controls
The comments by people depict a widening gap between official policy and public behavior. Small traders and households that once relied on Tether as a hedge against inflation now face the choice of breaking the rules or watching their savings erode.
For many Iranians confronting another devaluation and the return of UN sanctions, the Central Bank’s rule represents yet another blow to financial autonomy.
Those who spoke to Iran International said the cap will narrow legal channels, amplify underground trade and further alienate citizens from a banking system which is already widely distrusted.
