Iran slams fresh US sanctions over alleged Albania cyberattack

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

TEHRAN, Iran (AA) - Iran has slammed fresh US sanctions targeting the country’s ministry of intelligence and security while denying involvement in a July cyberattack in Albania.

In a statement on Saturday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the fresh sanctions “will not cause any hindrance” to the ministry’s personnel.

On Friday, the US Department of Treasury designated Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and its minister “for engaging in cyber-enabled activities against the United States and its allies.”

It accused the Iranian ministry of conducting “malicious cyber operations” against the government and private-sector organizations around the world while pointing specifically to a July cyberattack that targeted government websites in Albania.

“Iran’s cyberattack against Albania disregards norms of responsible peacetime state behavior in cyberspace, which includes a norm on refraining from damaging critical infrastructure that provides services to the public,” read the statement.

The latest sanctions came two days after Albania severed diplomatic relations with Tehran and ordered Iranian diplomats and embassy staff to leave the country within 24 hours.

Kanaani dismissed the allegations of orchestrating the cyberattack in Albania as “false and baseless,” instead blaming the US for involvement in the attack.

He said the “plot” has been “designed” not by the Albanian government, but by Washington, adding that Tirana has fallen “victim” to it.

He went on to criticize the US for forcing the Albanian government to host members of the dissident Iranian group Mujahedin-e-Khalq, and “training and equipping them in cyber technology.”

The group, he noted, has "constantly served and still serves as a tool in the hands of US to carry out acts of terror, cyberattacks, and wage psychosocial war against the Iranian government and nation."

Albania, a member of the NATO alliance, hosts about 3,000 members of the dissident Iranian group who live at Ashraf 3 camp in Manez, 30 kilometers west of the Albanian capital Tirana.

Iran accuses the group of involvement in multiple terrorist acts inside Iran, mostly in the 1980s.

Kanaani said Tehran will “use all its capacities to assert the rights of the Iranian people and defend itself against the sinister conspiracies,” referring to the alleged ties between the US and the Iranian group.

Tensions between Tehran and Washington have heightened again with efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal yielding no results so far.

Experts say the indirect talks between the two sides are likely to resume only after the November mid-term elections in the US, even though gaps have widened in recent days.

On Thursday, the US treasury slapped sanctions on Iranian companies for their alleged involvement in the production and transportation of drones to Russia.