US praises Albania’s decision to expel the Iranian ambassador and another diplomat over an alleged ‘terrorist plot’ that is likely linked to the presence of Iranian dissidents on Albania’s territory.
Albania on Wednesday expelled the Iranian ambassador and another diplomat over an alleged terrorist plot, whose nature have not been made public.
The decision was praised by US President Donald Trump and other US officials and apparently relates to the presence in Albania of several thousand Iranian dissidents from Mojahedin-e-Khalq, MEK group whose presence there Iran resents.
“Thank you for your steadfast eforts to stand up to Iran and to counter its destabilizing activities and efforts to silence dissidents around the globe,” Trump wrote in a letter to Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama, published on the US embassy Facebook page.
“The leadership you have shown by expelling Iran’s Ambassador to your country exemplifies our joint efforts to show the Iranian government that its terrorist activities in Europe and around the world will have severe consequences,” the letter added.
Albania accepted several waves of Iranian emigrants from 2013, when the MEK group had to evacuate Iraq.
The People’s Mujahedin of Iran is a controversial resistance group. Founded in 1965 as a left-leaning opposition to the former Shah’s regime, it turned against the Islamic Republic following the 1979 Revolution.
The US listed it as a terrorist organization in 1997 but removed it from the black list in 2012 after it renounced violence.
A part of the group is currently building an extended compound in Central Albania to host their comrades while others live around Tirana or have already emigrated elsewhere.
Mostly elderly and sick, members of the group apparently live a quiet life in Albania, despite which the Iranian government considers them active enemies.
There has been no official reaction from Iran but the country’s Fars News Agency interpreted the expulsion as part of US-led attempts to damage Iranian relations with European countries. (Link in Albanian)
Taking aim at his predecessor Barack Obama’s legacy, Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal with Iran in May, reimposing a ban on Iranian oil exports and tilting US policy further in support of Iran’s regional enemies, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
