Sanctions Show U.S. Behind Albania Scenario

TEHRAN -- Iran on Saturday strongly condemned a U.S. decision to impose sanctions on its intelligence ministry after baselessly accusing it of being behind a cyber-attack on Albania.
Albania severed diplomatic ties with Iran on Wednesday after accusing it of the July 15 cyber-attack in a move which many observers say is orchestrated by the U.S. and the occupying regime of Israel.
On Friday, the United States slapped sanctions on Iran’s intelligence ministry and its minister Esmail Khatib.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Saturday: “The ministry of foreign affairs strongly condemns the action of the U.S. treasury department in repeatedly sanctioning the ministry of intelligence of the Islamic republic.
“America’s immediate support for the false accusation of the Albanian government... shows that the designer of this scenario is not the latter, but the American government,” he added in a statement.
Kanaani hit out at the U.S. for “giving full support to a terrorist sect,” referring to the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), members of which are hosted by Albania.
Albania agreed in 2013 to take in members of the MKO from Iraq at the request of Washington, with thousands settling in the Balkan country over the years.
“This criminal organization continues to play a role as one of America’s tools in perpetrating terrorist acts, cyber attacks” against Iran, the statement added.
The MKO sided with former dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980-1988 Iraqi war on Iran.
The anti-Iran terrorist group based in Albania has carried out numerous acts of terrorism on Iranian soil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, martyring 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 U.S. list of terrorist organizations. The EU followed the suit, removing the group from its list of terrorist organizations.
“The Albanian government’s hosting of a terrorist cult and the U.S. government’s support for a group that has the blood of over 17,000 Iranian statesmen and citizens on its hands constitute a blatant

example of organized support for terrorists acting against the Iranian government and nation,” Kanaani stated.

Kanaani said the fresh sanctions, just like the previous illegal U.S. actions against the Iranian intelligence ministry, would not prevent its personnel by any means from serving the Iranian people and ensuring their security.

He said Tehran will use all its capacities within the framework of the international law to restore the rights of the Iranian nation and protect itself against those sinister plots.

On Friday, Iran’s embassy in Brussels condemned a statement issued by NATO which attributed the responsibility for the alleged cyber-attack to the government of Iran.

“NATO and its members not only kept silent on cyber-attacks against Iran’s infrastructural and nuclear facilities but also directly or indirectly had aided and abetted these acts of cyber sabotage,” said the mission. “They have no standing to level such accusations against Iran.”

The diplomatic mission condemned NATO and its allies for becoming a “safe haven” for the anti-Iranian terrorist organization MKO.

“NATO and its allies, claiming to fight international terrorism, have turned a blind eye on the fact that a terrorist cult has found a safe haven in NATO member countries, turning them into operational headquarters to launch the widest imaginable spectrum of malicious acts against Iran.”

kayhan.ir

Sanctions Show U.S. Behind Albania Scenario