Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled Iran with an iron grip for 36 years, was killed on Saturday in a joint American-Israeli military operation, setting off a day of sharply divided reactions on Australian streets that exposed the depth of feeling within one of the country's most politically engaged diaspora communities.
A joint statement from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, and Foreign Minister Penny Wong declared that Australia stands "with the brave people of Iran in their struggle against oppression" and confirmed Australia's support for the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The statement was unambiguous in its framing of the late Supreme Leader: "For decades, the Iranian regime has been a destabilising force, through its ballistic missile and nuclear programs, support for armed proxies, and brutal acts of violence and intimidation."
Iran had directed at least two attacks on Australian soil in 2024, targeting Australia's Jewish community in acts the government described as intended to create fear and challenge Australia's sovereignty. In response, Australia expelled Iran's ambassador, suspended its Tehran embassy, and listed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a state sponsor of terrorism. Parliament formally listed the IRGC under the Criminal Code Amendment (State Sponsors of Terrorism) Act 2025 in November of that year, the first entity ever to receive such a designation.
When pressed repeatedly on whether Australia played any operational role in the strikes, Albanese was direct. He was asked multiple times to confirm there was "no Australian involvement" whatsoever in the attack, each time replying that it was "unilateral action taken by the United States." The question of whether the joint intelligence facility at Pine Gap in the Northern Territory played any supporting role was raised but not answered.
Scenes of Celebration and Protest Across the Country
The response on Australian streets was immediate and split along starkly different lines. In Canberra, a group of over 100 Iranian-Australians gathered outside the Iranian embassy, many dancing, celebrating, cheering, playing music, and waving flags. In Melbourne, a group gathered at Federation Square in the CBD on Sunday morning, with attendees telling ABC News they hoped the recent strikes would ultimately result in the collapse of Iran's government and a more democratic system.
In Sydney, a celebratory event was held at Hyde Park to mark the death of Khamenei and the possibility of regime change, with members of the Iranian diaspora dancing, waving flags, and holding up posters of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. One Sydney attendee, Mohammad Hashemi, brought a photograph of his cousin Majid Kazemi, who was executed in Iran in 2023 after participating in the Woman Life Freedom protests. A soldier present at the execution reportedly told the family that Kazemi's last words were "death to Khamenei."
Not all reactions were celebratory. In Sydney, the Palestine Action Group demonstrated against the strikes on Iran, while in Melbourne a pro-Palestinian group gathered near Town Hall to broadly condemn the attacks. At Sydney's Town Hall, a demonstration organised by a group of Iranian leftists was held to protest the strikes, with one Iranian community member saying publicly that she could not celebrate Khamenei's death.
Shadi Rouhshahbaz, an Iranian-Australian futures and peacebuilding researcher, said many Iranians were experiencing "a multitude of feelings": "At the same time, we're feeling a lot of fear, we're feeling a lot of grief, we're exhausted, but also we're hopeful and joyful."
The Football Team Caught in the Middle
Few images captured the impossible position facing Iranians inside the regime's orbit quite like the scene at a press conference on the Gold Coast on Sunday morning. Iran's women's football team, Team Melli, is in Australia to compete in the Women's Asian Cup, with its opening match against South Korea scheduled for Monday night on the Gold Coast.
As reported by ABC News, a journalist asked coach Marziyeh Jafari for her reaction to Khamenei's death, first in Farsi and then in English. Before a translation could be given to the room, an official from the Asian Football Confederation intervened, saying: "Let's just focus on the game itself." The coach's translated answer was careful: "I don't think we should talk about this topic now. The team came to this tournament, which is important for women, and I think we should go to the next question."
The team's situation carries a security dimension beyond sport. It was reported on 18 February that Australia had granted permanent residency and health qualifications to Hanieh Safavi, daughter of Iranian major general Yahya Rahim Safavi, a sanctioned adviser to Khamenei and a former senior figure in the IRGC reportedly involved in Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, drawing criticism from members of the Iranian diaspora. Iranian-born Sydney local councillor Tina Kordrostami told the federal parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security that people with links to the IRGC might have entered Australia as part of the football team's delegation. "This creates an impossible situation," she told the committee. "On one hand, we open our doors to sport, cultural exchange, and people-to-people diplomacy. On the other, we risk inadvertently enabling networks that operate in the shadow of a listed or soon-to-be-listed entity."
The Broader Picture: Decades of Grievance
Khamenei had maintained an iron grip over Iran since he took power in 1989. In 2009, Iranians took to the streets to protest what was widely seen as a fraudulent presidential election; Khamenei brutally crushed those demonstrations, triggering both a backlash and further protest movements over the years. The most recent wave of protests, which began in late 2025, was met with a documented and devastating response. Iran killed more than 7,000 people during weeks of mass protests that started in late December 2025, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said more than 200 people were killed in strikes across Iran during Saturday's operation. Iran's Foreign Ministry called the attack a "gross violation" of its national sovereignty, with a statement saying the airstrikes hit both military and civilian targets. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the use of force and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
For critics of the strikes, the central concern is not the character of the Khamenei regime but the precedent set by a unilateral military decapitation of a sovereign government and the civilian cost of the campaign. France's President Emmanuel Macron warned that "the outbreak of war between the United States, Israel and Iran carries grave consequences for international peace and security." The UN Security Council convened an emergency meeting.
Those concerns carry genuine weight. What follows the death of a supreme leader in a theocratic state with a vast security apparatus, an active ballistic missile programme, and deep proxy networks across the Middle East is far from settled. By the time Khamenei died, Israel had decimated two key proxies in Hamas and Hezbollah, and with US help had left Iran's nuclear programme in disarray. What remains is a robust ballistic missile programme. It is unclear who will replace him to lead a weakened and vulnerable Iran.
Where Does Australia Go From Here?
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said more than 4,000 Australians had registered for help to leave the Middle East, around 2,900 of them in Iran and 1,300 in Israel. Australian officials had been deployed to Iran's border with Azerbaijan to assist those who could cross. The Smartraveller portal was updated to its highest alert level for Iran and Iraq.
The Albanese government's position reflects a careful balance. Australia did not commit military assets to the strikes and Albanese repeatedly insisted the action was unilateral. But the government's endorsement of the strategic objective, its prior expulsion of Iran's ambassador, and its listing of the IRGC place Australia firmly in one camp at a moment of acute global division.
The scenes that played out simultaneously on Sunday, from the dancing crowds at Federation Square to the sombre protesters outside Sydney's Town Hall, are not a contradiction. They are a reflection of a genuinely complex reality: a diaspora community that has suffered deeply under a regime that is now gone, confronting the uncertainty of what comes next, at a cost in civilian lives and regional stability that remains impossible to fully calculate. Both the relief and the anguish are legitimate. Australia's policymakers, and the broader public, would do well to hold both.