Iran calls new US sanctions against its Intelligence Ministry "illegal"

Tehran dissociates itself from the cyber attack on Albania and says that Tirana "is the victim of a scenario designed" by Washington

MADRID, 10 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Government of Iran has branded this Saturday as "illegal" the new sanctions imposed by the United States against the Iranian Intelligence Ministry and has again denied that Tehran was behind the cyberattack carried out in July against official Albanian pages, before influencing that Washington seeks to "turn Tirana against the Islamic Republic of Iran."

"The announcement of immediate US support for the Albanian government's false accusations against Iran and Washington's swift action to sanction the Intelligence Ministry and its minister by resorting to this same false and unproven accusation clearly shows that whoever has prepared the scenario is not the Albanian government, but the United States," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Naser Kanani said.

"Tirana is a victim of this designed scenario. The United States has turned the country against the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said, before accusing the United States of protecting members of a "terrorist sect" on Albanian territory, referring to the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), considered a terrorist group by Tehran.

In this sense, Kanani has stated that Washington would have given PMOI members "training and equipment in the computer field." "The tools of the United States have played a role in perpetrating terrorist acts, cyber attacks and psychological warfare against the government and people of Iran," she said.

For this reason, he stressed that the fact that Albania "hosts a terrorist sect" and the support of the United States for the group, which he has accused of "shedding the blood of more than 17,000 Iranian citizens", is "a clear example of organized support to terrorists against the Government and the nation (of Iran)".

"Iran will use all its capabilities, within the framework of International Law, to protect the rights of the Iranian people and defend itself from these sinister conspiracies," Kanani has settled, as stated in a statement published on the website of the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced on Wednesday the severance of relations with Iran and ordered all Iranian diplomats to leave the country within 24 hours after stating that investigations into the cyberattack have led to "irrefutable evidence" that the attack "was orchestrated and sponsored by Iran, which contacted four groups to attack Albania."

For her part, the spokeswoman for the United States National Security Council, Adrienne Watson, "firmly" condemned the "Iranian cyber attack" against Albania and demanded that Tehran be "accountable for this unprecedented cyber incident."

"The United States will take further action to hold Iran accountable for actions that threaten the security of an American ally and set a worrying precedent in cyberspace," he said, after the Treasury Department announced sanctions against the Iranian Intelligence Ministry on Friday. and its owner, Esmail Khatib.