Iran denounces ‘MKO host’ Albania’s move to sever ties as ‘shortsighted’
Iran has denounced the Albanian government's decision to sever diplomatic ties with Tehran as "shortsighted", dismissing the allegations of orchestrating the July cyber attack against the south European country as "baseless".
In a statement on Wednesday, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kana'ani condemned Albania's decision to cut ties with Iran and send back Iranian diplomats as "injudicious" and "lacking in foresight".
He also termed allegations leveled against Tehran as "baseless" and "unsubstantiated", blaming it on "third parties".
Earlier on Wednesday, Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama announced the decision in a video message, giving Iranian diplomats and embassy staff 24 hours to leave the country.
"This extreme response...is fully proportionate to the gravity and risk of the cyberattack that threatened to paralyze public services, erase digital systems, and hack into state records, steal government intranet electronic communication, and stir chaos and insecurity in the country," he said.
Refuting the allegation, the foreign ministry spokesman said as one of the victims of rampant cyberattacks, the Islamic Republic condemns any use of cyberspace toward infringement on other countries' vital infrastructures.
He identified the United States, the Israeli regime, and the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), an anti-Iran terrorist group that has been hosted by Albania since 2016, as the "third parties" that have propelled Tirana into taking the decision.
The statement cited the United States' National Security Council and Israeli media outlets' expeditious welcoming of the Albanian government's move, saying this "bespeaks existence of a choreographed plan aimed at political atmosphere against the Islamic Republic."
Albania took in around 3,000 members of the MKO terrorist group in 2016 at the request of Washington, after the group was disowned by Iraq and snubbed by many European countries.
The anti-Iran terrorist group based in Albania has carried out numerous acts of terrorism on Iranian soil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, killing senior political leaders, clerics and ordinary civilians.
The European Union, Canada, the United States, and Japan had previously listed the MKO as a "terrorist organization".
In 2012, the group was taken off the US list of terrorist organizations. The EU followed the suit, removing the group from its list of terrorist organizations.
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