Iran condemns baseless Albania, US sanctions: Kanaani

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Following the move by the US Department of the Treasury to designate Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and the minister of intelligence, again, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kanaani stressed that the newly imposed sanctions, like the previous illegal US embargos against the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, could not in any way impede the service that the Intelligence Ministry personnel provide to the Iranian people. 

Referring to the allegations of Iran’s involvement in cyber operations against Albania, Kanaani commented that the US’ immediate support for the unfounded claims by the Albanian government against Iran, calling it "ill-considered" and "short-sighted", as well as Washington’s frequent imposition of sanctions against Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and its minister, Esmail Khatib, exhibit that “such scenario has been designed by the US administration, not the government of Albania, and Tirana has fallen victim to the scenario that Washington has invented against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Part of Washington's frequent sanctions includes the US Treasury Department's announcement on Thursday that it has imposed sanctions on one person, Rehmatollah Heidari, and multiple entities - Paravar Pars Company, Design and Manufacturing of Aircraft Engines, and Baharestan Kish Company - in a new round of Iran-related sanctions, in addition to designating the Tehran-based Safiran Airport Services, accusing it of coordinating alleged Russian military flights between Iran and Russia, including flights associated with transporting drones, personnel, and related equipment and claiming that they are involved in the development, production, and procurement of Iranian drones.

At the beginning of August, the US treasury published in a press release that six entities, including one vessel, were placed on their sanction list on charges of "facilitating the illicit sale of Iranian petroleum and petrochemicals."

The Iranian foreign minister took a jab at the US enforcement of the Albanian government to host the terrorist Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) for years while providing them full support and training them in the cyber field, expressing that the criminal MKO group continues to be a mere in the US' means to an end for terrorist operations, cyber-attacks, and psychological warfare against the Iranian government and people.

“The Albanian government’s hosting of a terrorist cult," Kanaani commented, "and the US government’s move to support and employ as a tool a cult that has the blood of over 17,000 Iranian statesmen and citizens on its hands are a blatant example of organized support for terrorists against the Iranian government and nation,” disclosing that Iran will use all availabilities within the international law framework for the restoration of the Iranian people's rights and for the protection itself against those ominous plots.

On Friday, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it has designated Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and its Minister of Intelligence for what it labeled as engaging in cyber-enabled activities against the US and its allies.

Albania hosted approximately 3,000 members of the MKO terrorist group in 2016 per Washington's request, following the group's disownment by Iraq and disdain by many European countries, with the group previously being listed by the European Union, Canada, the United States, and Japan as a "terrorist organization".

The Albania-based anti-Iran terrorist group executed multiple acts of terrorism on Iranian soil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, killing senior political leaders, clerics, and civilians. In 2012, the group was taken off the US terrorist organizations list and the EU followed suit, removing the group from its own list.