Beijing, 9 Sep (Xinhua) -- Albanian Prime Minister Eddie Rama announced on 7 September that due to the Iranian cyber attack, the Afghan side decided to sever diplomatic relations with Iran and demanded that Iranian diplomats and other staff in Afghanistan leave the country within 24 hours. Iran's Foreign Ministry said the Allegations by the Afghan side were "groundless" and that the decision to sever diplomatic relations was influenced by a third party.
The United States immediately expressed its support for the NATO ally after the Statement and threatened to "take further action" against Iran. According to the interpretation of Iranian media, Albania's "severance of diplomatic relations" move is at the behest of the United States; The United States has long supported Albania's hosting of Iranian anti-government organizations and has tried to use so-called cyber attacks to pressure Iran in the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear agreement.
Albanian Prime Minister Hama speaks at a news conference in Brussels, Belgium, on July 19. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zheng Huansong
First time
Reuters reporters saw in the early morning of the 8th that in Tirana, the capital of Albania, only 200 meters from the Iranian Embassy's palace, Iranian diplomats were burning documents. The light of the fire illuminated the façade of the 3-story building of the embassy.
Rama issued a video statement on the 7th, pointing out that Iran launched a network attack on July 15 in an attempt to paralyze the public service functions of Afghan government agencies and steal data and electronic communications from the Afghan government's internal network, creating chaos in Afghanistan. The Afghan Council of Ministers decided to sever diplomatic relations with Iran and "take effect immediately".
Rama said the cyberattack launched by Iran failed to achieve its intended objectives. "Compared to the attacker's goal, the loss can be said to be extremely small. All systems are back to normal operation and no data has been completely erased."
The Associated Press reported that a country has severed diplomatic relations with other countries on the grounds of a cyberattack, and only one case has been known so far.
This is the Freedom Tower, a landmark building photographed in Tehran, the capital of Iran, on January 1, 2021. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Ahmed Harabissas)
Iran's Foreign Ministry later issued a statement strongly condemning the Arab side's decision to sever diplomatic relations, saying that the act was "ill-considered" and "short-sighted" and that the Arab side's claims were "groundless and unverified."
Iran's critical infrastructure has been subjected to cyberattacks, and "Iran opposes and condemns any use of cyberspace to attack the infrastructure of other countries," the statement said.
Touch on old grudges
According to the analysis of the US security company Mandiante, there is some reason to believe that the hackers who launched the July 15 cyberattack were intended to support Iran's action against anti-government organizations outside the country. A hacking group called Homeland Justice claimed on the social media platform Telegram that the cyberattack was directed against members of the Iranian People's Mujahideen (MEK).
Iran lists the Iranian People's Mujahideen as a terrorist organization. According to the British "Eye of the Middle East" news network, the group initially supported the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution, then broke with the Iranian regime, long-term seeking to overthrow the Iranian regime, and now belongs to the "Iranian National Resistance Council", which has caused many attacks in Iran.
A woman wears a mask on the streets of Tehran, the capital of Iran, on January 30, 2021. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Ahmed Harabissas)
In 2020, Iran's domestic human rights group, the Habrian Association, released a report that identified terrorist attacks by the Iranian People's Mujahideen as killing 12,000 Iranians.
In 2013, Albania granted refugee status to some 3,000 members of the anti-government group outside Iran, allowing the group to set up camps in Afghanistan. Since then, relations between Iran and Albania have taken a sharp turn for the worse.
In 2018 and 2020, the Arab side expelled four Iranian diplomats, including the Iranian ambassador to Afghanistan, on the grounds that they threatened Afghanistan's internal security. The Iranian Embassy in Afghanistan was demoted to the level of chargé d'affaires ad hoc.
According to Iranian media reports, the Iranian People's Mujahideen has launched multiple cyberattacks on Iranian infrastructure and networks from within Albania.
There are pushers
The Iranian side believes that Albania's decision to break diplomatic relations with Iran is influenced by a "third party" and the spearhead is alluded to the United States.
This is the White House photographed in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 21. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Jie
Iran's Fars news agency noted that an hour after the Afghan side announced the decision to sever diplomatic relations, the United States "strongly condemned" Iran. Adriana Watson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. National Security Council, said Iranian cyberattacks "threaten the security of U.S. allies" and that "the United States will take further action to hold Iran accountable."
According to the Iranian media, the United States is the driving force behind Albania's initial adoption of the "Iranian People's Jihadist Organization". The Tehran Times said that the Algerian side's severance of diplomatic relations with Iran is also cooperating with the requirements of the United States.
In 1997, during the period of détente between the United States and Iran, the United States listed the "Iranian People's Mujahideen" as a terrorist organization, and in 2012 it was removed from the list of terrorist organizations.
Fan Hongda, a professor at the Middle East Research Institute of Shanghai Chinese University, told Xinhua News Agency that at the beginning of this century, the "Iranian People's Mujahideen Organization" began to designate Iran as secretly carrying out nuclear programs, and the United States thought that the organization was useful to it, and its attitude changed as a result.
According to Agence France-Presse, the "Iranian People's Mujahideen Organization" regularly holds "summits" in Albania, for which many conservative POLITICIANs in the United States have "stood the platform". In June, former U.S. Vice President and Republican Mike Pence delivered a keynote address at one of the events.
Fan Hongda said that the White House's statement shows that the United States has influenced the Relationship between Iran and Iran with the role of a supreme judge and law enforcer. Such acts by the United States create difficulties for other countries to develop bilateral relations independently.
On March 6, 2020, at the White House in Washington, D.C., then-Vice President Pence spoke at a press conference. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Shen Ting)
Suspected pressure
According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, behind Albania's decision to break diplomatic relations with Iran, "there is a pre-designed plan" aimed at creating a political atmosphere against Iran.
The Albanian government says the Afghan investigation into the July 15 cyberattack was conducted in collaboration with Microsoft in the United States and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
According to the analysis of the Tehran Times, the White House publicly expressed its solidarity immediately after the Arab side announced the severance of diplomatic relations, which made people suspect that this was an elaborate act of the United States, the purpose of which was to increase the chips of the United States in the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear agreement.
In early August, the European Union submitted a "final text" to the parties to the JCPOA on resuming implementation of the 2015 agreement, and Iran responded and proposed changes. According to the Tehran Times, the US government has so far refused to reply to the proposals made by the Iranian side, but instead accused Iran of trying to cover up the incompetence of the US side itself to make the necessary political decisions.
Fan Hongda believes that under the current international situation, the United States is more eager than Iran to complete negotiations on the resumption of implementation of the Iranian nuclear agreement as soon as possible, but is unwilling to make more concessions. When the negotiations reached an impasse, the United States made such a statement on the Ai-Iran diplomatic severance incident, intending to exert pressure on Iran. (Hu Ruoyu)
Source: Xinhua News Agency