Tehran monitored the home of a regime critic in Australia and extensively researched the person and their family Government committee heard dozens of Iranian-Australians concerned by threats and surveillance LONDON: Australian security agencies have foiled a foreign interference plot by Iran that was targeting an Australian Iranian critic, the Guardian reported. Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil disclosed the incident from late last year in a speech at the Australian National University on Tuesday. Iran allegedly conducted surveillance of the home of a regime critic in Australia and extensively researched the person and their family. “I’m pleased to say our agencies were on to it like a shot. Asio tracked the operation and shut it down immediately,” O’Neil told the ANU’s National Security College. The minister underscored that it is “perfectly legal” for anyone in her country to criticize a foreign regime, as tens of thousands have done in response to Tehran’s violent crackdown of protests since September. Describing foreign interference as one of the “core threats” to democracy, she said Australian security agencies were “not going to stand back and have Australians or indeed visitors to our country watched and tracked by foreign governments on our soil. “To those states who operate in the shadows, I have a simple message — we are watching you. Where our national interest is served by calling out your operations, we will. And to those in Australia making their voice heard, we are acting to protect you,” O’Neil affirmed. Senator Claire Chandler, who chaired a recent inquiry into human rights in Iran, told the Guardian that the committee had heard from dozens of Australia Iranians concerned about threats, intimidation, surveillance and foreign interference by individuals tied to the Iranian regime. The Iranian Embassy was contacted by the Guardian for comment. Meanwhile, O’Neil vowed to shine a light on foreign interference so that people can be better prepared to face the challenge, but said she wanted to “broaden the conversation to reflect the accurate picture and that is that we are the subject of foreign interference from very many countries.” O’Neil said Iran was the “first cab off the rank” and added she planned to deliver a series of public interventions divulging “some specific examples of foreign interference we see from specific countries.” In 2018, Australia passed legislation which prohibits covert and deceptive activities of foreign actors that interfere with Australian democracy, the Guardian reported.