As the Islamic Republic of Iran and its terror networks cause death and destruction in Israel and Gaza and threaten to spread it further across the Middle East, we need to urgently look at how they were allowed to brazenly operate simultaneously as purveyors of terror and influential diplomats.

The answers bear directly on how Australia and our allies can safeguard our interests and security in the months and years ahead – for the Islamic Republic’s ability to grow its international influence and set itself up as a powerbroker while openly committing and funding acts of violence at home and abroad is undoubtedly being studied and admired by authoritarian regimes around the world.

The world has known for a very long time that the IRI regime funds and arms Hamas to help them carry out their aims of attacking Israel and killing Jews, as well as providing drones to Russia to kill Ukrainians. It’s long acknowledged that the regime is the leading state sponsor of terrorism. Security agencies around the world have told us the regime targets and attempts to kill its critics in Western countries. Indeed, in February this year, the Home Affairs Minister confirmed the regime’s operatives had followed and broken into the home of an Australian resident.

The many appalling and dangerous behaviours of the regime, and the strong likelihood of it causing death and conflict, were the major themes of a Senate Inquiry I chaired, which commenced twelve months ago this week. Our inquiry attracted more than 1,000 submissions, and made twelve recommendations for action by the Australian government. More than six months after those recommendations were made, the Albanese government finally issued its response, accepting only two of the twelve in full and one other in part.

Among the rejected recommendations was our call for the government to take the necessary steps to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror organisation, a call echoed by the Biden administration and which the Coalition has repeatedly offered bipartisan support to achieve. It is a nonsensical loophole that it is a criminal offence in Australia to provide support for Hamas and Hezbollah, but not to the IRGC which funds, arms and trains those organisations to kill Jews.

While the regime’s behaviour clearly called for meaningful diplomatic consequences, it was able to continue its dangerous actions at pace in the lead-up to the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, even as diplomats sought to strike deals over hostages and nuclear weapons development.

Even now, with multiple Iranian proxies including Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthi rebels in Yemen actively engaged in attacks against Israel and, in the case of its network of Iraq-based militant-terror groups, attacks on US bases, Western diplomats are asking the Islamic Republic regime to merely ‘stay out of’ the conflagration which the regime itself initiated.

By funding and praising the actions of Hamas and its other proxies, the regime is bolstering its anti-Israel credentials with those attracted to such sentiment and gaining influence accordingly, while being protected from any consequence for its sponsorship of terrorism by the (im)plausible deniability they create by using proxies operating out of civilian areas in Gaza, Lebanon and elsewhere to mount direct attacks.

While Israel mourns the cold-blooded slaughter of 1,400 civilians and citizens of Gaza who are held captive in a warzone by Hamas, the IRI regime grows its reputation as being able to strike at Israel and the West and then be asked for their help to calm tensions. A regime that should have been isolated to the greatest extent possible well before October 7 has instead been granted the status of a major power able to direct the course of major conflict as it chooses. As many analysts have observed, the regime will be happy to spend many Palestinian lives in pursuit of their aims, all while using the deaths they cause to poison Western sentiment against Israel.

Over the last twelve months, I’ve spoken to and corresponded with thousands of people who have experienced and studied the brutal tactics of the Islamic Republic of Iran regime. The clear message has been that the IRI regime is a danger not just to Iranians and Jews, but to the whole world. Hundreds of Iranian women and girls have died or been thrown in prison for trying to make the world see what the regime is. It’s a great shame that they weren’t better heard.

Senator Claire Chandler, Liberal Senator for Tasmania | Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs