Albania cuts ties with Iran and orders its diplomats to leave after a cyber-attack
On Wednesday, Albania announced that it cuts diplomatic ties with Iran and ordered Iranian diplomats and embassy staff to leave within 24 hours, saying an investigation had concluded that the Islamic Republic was behind a cyber-attack on the country in July.
“The government has immediately decided to cut diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said in a video statement sent to the media.
He added, “This stern reaction … is fully proportional to the seriousness and gravity of the electronic attack, which threatened to paralyze public services, erase digital systems, penetrate state records, steal internal government electronic correspondence, and create chaos and lawlessness in the country”.
The Iranian embassy in Tirana didn’t immediately comment.
The United States also said that after weeks of investigation it concluded that Iran was behind the “reckless and irresponsible” cyber-attack on July 15, and said it would support its NATO ally.
“The United States will take further action to hold Iran accountable for actions that threaten the security of an ally of the United States and set a worrying precedent in cyberspace,” the US National Security Council said in a statement.
Relations between the two countries have been tense since 2014, when Albania welcomed about 3,000 members of the Iranian opposition, the People’s Mojahedin Organization, who settled in a camp near Durres, the country’s main port.
Albania had previously announced that it had thwarted a number of attacks planned by Iranian agents against the opposition organization.
Rama said, “The detailed investigation provided us with irrefutable evidence that the cyber-attack against our country was orchestrated and sponsored by the Islamic Republic of Iran, through the use of four groups that carried out the attack”.
The White House said the US government has been working on the ground for weeks with private partners to investigate and help Albania recover from the attack that destroyed government data and disrupted public services.
“We have concluded that the Iranian government carried out this reckless and irresponsible cyber-attack and is responsible for subsequent hacking and leaking operations,” he added.
The United States called the attack unprecedented, saying it violated peacetime standards of not harming critical infrastructure on which the public depends.
“The United States strongly condemns the Iranian cyber-attack against our NATO ally, Albania,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
Watson clearly accused Tehran of being behind an “irresponsible” cyber-attack against the small Balkan country, which she said “sets a worrying precedent”.
For its part, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that Tehran strongly condemned today, Wednesday, Albania’s decision to cut diplomatic relations with it, and rejected Tirana’s reasons for taking this step, describing it as “baseless allegations”.
Albania cut diplomatic ties with Iran on Wednesday and expelled its diplomats after a July cyber-attack it blamed on the Islamic Republic, a move backed by Washington and vowing to respond to the attack on its NATO ally.
