The reaction of the MEK:

However, the MEK, in widely reflecting this news, only addressed the first part of it, i.e. non-extradition, but did not mention the second part of the statement, i.e. not allowing political activity. This lack of honesty on the part of the MEK and a few Farsi-language media in reflecting the news is not new, but anyway, some people have concluded that only the first part of Edi Rama’s speech was serious and the second part was not taken so seriously, and it was considered as mostly mentioning to cover up the unlawful image of the statement of the first part.

The reaction of the media director of the Albanian Nejat Society

The Media Director of the Albanian Nejat Society, Mr. Aldo Sulollari, reacted in this regard in the cyberspace as follows:
Friends and well-wishers of the Albanian Nejat Society.

Today, as a response to the Prime Minister of the country, Edi Rama, I am including a reaction.
In a rally in United States, Rama stated that the MEK had trusted the support of Albania and therefore, for humanitarian reasons, he did not want to return them to Iran.
In addition, Prime Minister Rama said that the MEK should not use their position here (Albania) politically by using various means to enmity their country.

Albania has welcomed them (MEK) with the status of asylum for humanitarian reasons and has responded to them with altruism and with the greatest kindness by opening its doors over to them for many years.

The members of the MEK are not dangerous people, but they are individuals who have been misused to serve the goals and interests of their leaders and are called as the opposition of Iran.
The members of this Iranian opposition left their country, which, according to them, prevented their freedom.

But these members are not really free at the moment and have been taken hostage by the leaders of the MEK and they are not allowed to be free and communicate with their families.

The members of this Iranian opposition left their country because they thought that they would not be oppressed by having secular laws, but in the system of the MEK, they implement oppressive laws with more intensity, even separating couples and conjugal families. They force the spouses to divorce and call each other brother and sister.
In addition to continuing to betray their country, the leaders of the MEK want to create a conflict between their country and European countries by adopting treacherous policies.
MEK members have become slaves who do nothing but damage the integrity of their country based on slander and ordinary games.

In none of the written points in the regulations related to a person’s membership in the MEK, they were not aware that they would be the tools of a false opposition that was caught by the deceptions that the MEK do with brainwashing.

The leaders tell the members that if they leave the camp, they will face serious problems or be imprisoned, and therefore they are not allowed to leave the camp unless accompanied by a guard who is careful that they do not see the real life in Albania.

Those Iranians who have been deceived and are apparently acting like brave people on their keyboards with a stream of slander and abuse, are the same ones who apologize to us when they leave the camp and ask us to support them so that they can go and live freely.

The Nejat Society does not do anything great except that it fulfills its duty to integrate them in the Albanian society and integrate them from the social, artistic, and professional dimensions to supporting the creation of a family and most importantly institutional support for them.
Anyway, I am openly saying that the Albanian institutions have supported the Nejat Society by doing a great job to ensure a peaceful and safe social life for the ex-members.
I thank Prime Minister Rama for the humanitarianism he shows towards the camp residents and I also request him to inspect the human rights of the members living in that camp.

The reaction of the CEO of Najat Society

Following the reaction of the media director of the Albanian Nejat Society, the CEO of the Nejat Society, Ebrahim Khodabandeh, stated answering the questions raised in this regard:
First of all, on behalf of the expectant families, I would like to thank the humanitarian positions of Mr. Edi Rama, the Prime Minister of Albania, and I hope that this humanitarianism will include the situation of the captive members inside the isolated and remote camp of the Rajavi Cult, whose human rights are violated daily by the leaders, and I hope that the government, by exercising its sovereignty over this part of the Albanian territory, guarantee the compliance of the basic human rights of these people.

According to the Prime Minister of Albania, the MEK have apparently settled in a refugee camp for humanitarian reasons, but the Albanian government does not have the slightest control over this refugee camp, which is located on the territory of Albania, unlike other refugee camps, and they have practically formed an independent government inside Albania, which, even according to the news of the Albanian media, have repeatedly violated the laws of this country and are considered a threat to the national security.

Secondly, the fact that the supplementary part of the statements of the Prime Minister of Albania was not taken seriously by the MEK may not be without reason. However, they have continued to target the psychological security of the Iranian nation with tools such as the Sima-ye Azadi TV channel and the cyber army. The intelligence, security and military departments of this organization are still based and active in Albania and in a place outside the control of the government of this country, and they use the Internet in Albania to guide what they call rebel centers. The government internet systems inside Iran have been hacked many times by the MEK according to their statements, and the Albanian government is definitely responsible for these hostile actions against the country and the people of Iran from its own soil.

Therefore, as my dear colleague Mr. Sulollari stated, as far as the wishes of the suffering families are concerned; while appreciating the humanitarian intentions of the Prime Minister of Albania, his government is requested to have more control over the internal relations of the MEK camp, where they have and apply their own rule and laws.

Nejat Society – Central Office

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SPIEGEL : Mr. Rama, last week the security forces near Tirana carried out an operation in the Iranian MEK camp. Why?

Rama: We have had the MEK in our country for several years. They are welcome, but on the condition that they do not use Albania as a platform for their political operations. Our Iranian guests have repeatedly violated this agreement.

SPIEGEL: Government computers in Tehran have been hacked and sensitive documents circulated. About 100 PCs and dozens of hard drives are said to have been confiscated now. Can you confirm this?

Rama : Albania has no intention of being at war with the Iranian regime. Albania does not accept anyone who has abused our hospitality.

Spiegel: Why did you agree to the request of US President Barack Obama in 2016 to accept thousands of Mujahideen?

Rama: It was a life-saving operation. We opened our doors because the group, then operating from Iraq, was systematically followed. And if a friend like the US asks us for something, we feel honored.

SPIEGEL : If you were MEK, would you prefer to leave?

Rama: We understand the anger against the regime in their country. But our country is used as a trench in a war that is not ours, it does not work! Of course, they have every right to fight for their freedom, but to do so they must leave Albania.

Control in the MEK camp

On June 20, 2023, by order of SPAK also signed by GJKKO, the state police undertook the control action in the Ashraf 3 camp, in Manzë, where nearly 2500 members of the MEK organization, the mujahedin of the Iranian people, are housed. The controls were undertaken due to an investigation launched into cyber attacks against the Islamic Republic of Iran at different periods of time as well as against the institutions of the Iranian state. During the search, the police encountered resistance and confrontation with MEK members. 15 policemen were injured and several members of the camp, while a 78-year-old man lost his life. The Mujahideen said that his death was caused by the police, but they denied that they used violence. The Durrës Prosecutor’s Office is waiting for the autopsy and the response to the toxicological tests.

In the investigation for war provocation

During the control, numerous computer equipment were found in 17 buildings, which were seized. SPAK’s investigations against members of the MEK organization in Albania have started since May 18, 2023 for the criminal offenses “provocation of war”, “illegal interception of computer data”, “interference with computer data”, “misuse of equipment

DASH and American Ambassador Yuri Kim also supported the actions of the police in Camp Ashraf 3. On June 21, Ambassador Kim said that guests of a country must respect the established rules and that it was within Albania’s right to decide whether to expel them or not.

On June 23, Defense Minister Niko Peleshi declared that the creation of islands where laws would be violated would not be tolerated. Meanwhile, the police control the entrances and exits to the Mujahideen camp.

The Albanian Shqiptarja.com – translated by Nejat Society

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“We have had MEK in our country for several years. They are welcome but on the condition that they do not use Albania as a platform for their political operations. Our Iranian guests have repeatedly violated this agreement “, said Rama in an interview in the German media “Der Spiegel”.

He added that Albania has no intention of being at war with the Iranian regime as he commented on the action of the Albanian police last week in the MEK camp.

” It was a life-saving operation. We opened our doors because the group, then operating from Iraq, was systematically followed. And if a friend like the US asks us for something, we feel honored.” , adds the head of government.

Politiko.al

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“We have had MEK in our country for several years. They are welcome but on the condition that they do not use Albania as a platform for their political operations. Our Iranian guests have repeatedly violated this agreement”, said Prime Minister Rama to Der Spiegel.

The head of the government says that Albania has no intention of being at war with the Iranian regime and that it does not accept anyone who has abused our hospitality.

“It was a life-saving operation. We opened our doors because the group, then operating from Iraq, was systematically followed. And if a friend like the US asks us for something, we feel honored. We understand the anger against the regime in their country. But our country is used as a trench in a war that is not ours, it does not work! Of course, they have every right to fight for their freedom, but to do this they must leave Albania,” added the head of the government.

The Prime Minister’s interview comes a few days after the State Police, by decision of the Special Court, conducted a search in the premises of the MEK camp in Manez.

Durreslajm.al – Translated by Nejat Society

The post If want war, run away from Albania; Rama warns the Mujahideen appeared first on Nejat Society.

Israel, as has been the case for years, first sent its mercenary, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), to ask the Foreign Ministry of Albania to refuse to issue visas to junior Iranian weightlifters due to security reasons and terrorist threats, but this ploy was not successful and therefore Israel had to take action directly and use all its lobbying capacity and prevent the issuance of visas for Iranian weightlifters by spending a huge amount of money.

The excuse of Edi Rama’s government under Zionist pressure for not issuing visas in this regard was that since Russian athletes have been sanctioned due to the war in Ukraine and since Iran sells weapons to Russia in this war, therefore Iranian athletes are also included in the sanctions. Of course, for now, only Edi Rama, who is living in a critical dilemma in his country, has achieved the discovery at the behest of Israel that Iranian athletes should be sanctioned like Russian athletes.

Over the past months, the Albanian media have been reporting on the government of Edi Rama, who is struggling in internal crises, heading fast towards dependence on Israel. Some observers believe that the hacks that took place in Albania’s cyber systems since the summer of last year were carried out by Israel itself in order to blame them on Iran and in this way make Albania more dependent on itself with promises of cyber aid. A trick that, of course, has distanced Albania more and more from Europe and even from America in some cases.

According to the information obtained, the European Union wants the MEK to be limited as much as possible in Albania, but the dependence of Edi Rama’s government on Israel to deal with hacks that are most likely the work of Israel, and to receive propaganda services for the council elections in the next month, has become such that it has practically adopted a dual policy towards the MEK and against the former members of this organization in ASILA, which Albania will definitely suffer from both sides if this policy continues.

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It is unlikely that the honorable Prime Minister is so unaware of the affairs inside his own country that he is nit able to know that not only political actions are taken by the MEK but also it commits all types of crimes and illegitimate acts in Albania and in response no one in the government expresses concern or sorrow.
The increasing dissatisfaction of the Albanian nation and the entire European Union regarding the presence of the Cult of Rajavi in the European territory, as well as the hatred of the Iranian people and Iranian opposition groups towards the MEK, is undeniable. Also, the fact that the MEK violates the most basic rights of its own members has become a serious problem for the Albanian government.

On the one side, Albania wants to distance itself from Maryam Rajavi and her notorious group in order to get closer to the EU. On the other side, it can not neglect the financial aids by Saudi Arabia and the intelligence and propaganda aid by Israel. The two governments that currently support the MEK.
Mr. Edi Rama should be asked that the news of Maryam Rajavi’s meeting with British Parliamentarians and his recent expression of support for the Iranian revolution which was published on the MEK’s website was considered “agricultural activity”?

By Ebrahim Khodabandeh

The NYTimes article: 

A NATO Minnow Reels from Cyberattacks Linked to Iran
By Andrew Higgins
Published Feb. 25, 2023

A NATO Minnow Reels from Cyberattacks Linked to Iran
Albania has been the target of repeated digital assaults believed to be linked to its sheltering of an Iranian dissident group on its soil.

The Albanian government has resisted succumbing to blackmail and has refused to evict M.E.K. Doing that, Mr. Rama said, would be “the biggest shame” for a country with a long history of sheltering refugees nobody else wants, including thousands of Afghans in 2021.

But he complained that M.E.K. were “not easy people, frankly,” and that the group had violated an agreement that it would refrain from using Albania as “a safe haven to make political activity against the Iranian regime.”
Instead, the group has organized high-profile events in Albania aimed at rallying opposition to Tehran, including an annual gathering called the Free Iran World Summit, whose paid speakers have included prominent American supporters like Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former New York mayor and a onetime personal lawyer to former President Donald J. Trump.

The Iranian dissidents, Mr. Rama said, have “friends on Capitol Hill that lobby for them” but have now been ordered to halt public activities against Iran. M.E.K. canceled the Free Iran event last year. “There is no more of this now,” the prime minister said. “We hope that they will not try again because it is not beneficial to this country and they have to accept that.”

The NCR article: 

Renowned British Lawmakers Visit Ashraf 3, Support Iran’s Resistance and Revolution
Written by Shamsi Saadati
1st March 2023

The post Double Standards of the Albanian Prime Minister appeared first on Nejat Society.

Meanwhile, hopes of reviving the 2015 nuclear deal continue to fade as leading European countries expressed ‘serious doubts’ about Iran’s intentions.

The latest attack in Albania comes just days after Prime Minister Edi Rama accused Iran of being behind a 15 July cyberattack that brought all government websites and digital citizens’ services offline and was described by Microsoft as “destructive.”

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama

He ordered all Iranian diplomats to leave the country within 24 hours, severing all diplomatic ties with immediate effect.

On Saturday, Rama said the country’s border management information system (TIMS) was under “another cyber-attack by the same aggressors”, taking to social media a day later to confirm systems were back up and running.

“Beyond the heavy feeling created by the penetration into these systems, just like when they break into a house and steal, the fact is that the aggression has not achieved its goal at all, no disappearance or serious data leak!” Rama wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

Those trying to use the TIMS system, which records every person who enters and exits the country, were confronted by a message stating, “Albania is still paying for the terrorist acts of the MEK cult in Durres; this game will continue.”

Albania is home to the MEK group (People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran), who were transferred to Albania from an Iraqi refugee camp in 2016.

The group was founded in 1965 and engaged in militant action against the Iranian government for decades before forging an alliance with Iraq and siding with them during the Iraq-Iran war.

MEK was previously designated as a terrorist organisation by the EU, Canada, US and Japan, but this was repealed. They were given protection in 2004 by the US government under the Geneva Convention.

They aim to overthrow the Iranian government, and some 1,000 members live in a closed, heavily guarded compound 40 kilometres outside Tirana.

However, some analysts say it is not just due to MEK that Albania is being targeted. Albania is staunchly pro-American, a member of NATO and is home to a NATO airbase and, potentially, a future, a NATO naval base.

In today’s edition of the Capitals, find out more about Nord Stream 1’s 10-day maintenance causing worry for German policymakers, the Uber Files naming French President Emmanuel Macron as helping Uber enter the French market, and so much more.

Be vigilant

Lawyer and politician Kreshnik Spahiu told Euronews Albania that the government should be vigilant against attacks as it is “in a direct war with Iran.”

“Albania must be very prepared militarily, even with the intelligence services, but also as a society in terms of other attacks that in the future will no longer be on the Internet and social networks, but we will have consequences and physical victims,” he said.

The US National Security Council has also reacted to the latest news of the attack, stating it supports Albania’s recovery efforts.

“The United States condemns the September 9th cyberattack against our NATO Ally, Albania. This malicious activity against Albania follows the July 15 cyberattack conducted by the Government of Iran. The U.S. government is supporting Albania’s efforts to mitigate and recover,” a statement on Twitter reads.

On Friday, the US government imposed sanctions on Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security and its head, Esmail Khatib, .for cyber-related activities against the US and its allies following a Whitehouse pledging “further action.”

The Director of the Civil Aviation Authority, Maksim Et’hemaj, said the attack was sabotage and called for establishing a Crisis Coordination Committee.

“In civil aviation, what happened with the TIMS system is classified by the definition, sabotage. In such cases, in cases of sabotage, the civil aviation asks the local authorities to set up what is called the Crisis Coordination Committee,” he told Euronews Albania.

NATO and its head, Jens Stoltenberg, on Thursday (8 September) condemned the Iranian cyberattack on Albania, which saw the country cut ties with Tehran and demand all its diplomats to leave within 24 hours on Wednesday.

But it is not just Albania that has witnessed such attacks. Digital services in Kosovo and North Macedonia have also been targeted over the last few days, although it is not yet known who is behind them.

Troll farm

Meanwhile, the MEK, in March 2021, was accused by Facebook of running a troll farm out of their base in Albania.

In a statement published on their website, Facebook said they had investigated and disrupted a “long-running operation from Albania that targeted primarily Iran”

“The network violated our policy against foreign interference, which is coordinated inauthentic behaviour on behalf of a foreign entity,” they wrote in their in-depth report.

The latest escalation comes on the backdrop of increasingly bleak hopes for reviving the so-called 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal that gave Iran sanctions relief in return for restricting its nuclear programme.

In 2018, then US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord and reimposed sanctions.

Momentum for the EU-mediated new deal that seemed to be there earlier this month appears to have since faded, with Germany, France and Britain on Saturday raising “serious doubts” in a tripartite statement about Iran’s sincerity in restoring the accord.

The European nations charged that Tehran “has chosen not to seize this critical diplomatic opportunity”, adding that “instead, Iran continues to escalate its nuclear programme way beyond any plausible civilian justification”. Iran’s foreign ministry criticised those comments as “unconstructive.”, AFP reported.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid arrived in Germany Sunday to persuade Western powers to ditch the tattered deal altogether.

By Alice Taylor – EURACTIV – Sep 12, 2022 (updated: Sep 26, 2022)

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I am Samira Sheikh Mansoori the sister of Nasar Sheikh Mansoori. I would like to inform you that my brother was taken as a war prisoner by Iraqi forces when he was a soldier fighting to defend his homeland against the invading enemy, Iraq. After he was imprisoned, he used to write letters and send them to us through the Red Cross office until 1987 but since then we have had no news of him.

Years later, we came to know that he was in the headquarters of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI) but we still were not able to contact him. Recently, we have been informed that my brother has been shown up in the MEK TV channel in an interview.

My family and I are very pleased to see my brother, Nasar, after 35 years of separation but what makes us sad and worried is that Nasar did not say any thing about his family although he has had no news about us and especially our mother who missed him a lot! As I know about my brother’s personality, he is such an emotional and caring person and when he was in Iraqi prison, he always expressed his longing for family.

Mr. Prime Minister,
Regarding that the MEK has clearly indicated in the interview that my brother is in their camp in Manez, Albania, we appeal you as the prime minister of the country, to assist us to make a phone call with or to visit my brother after years of being away. I should inform you that our mother passed away two years ago after 33 years of waiting for his son.
We are looking forward to your taking action in this case.

Sincerely Yours,
Samira Sheikh Mansoori
Bandar Mahshahr, Khuzestan, Iran

The post Open Letter from the sister of MEK member to the Albanian Prime Minister appeared first on Nejat Society.

The text of the letter is as follows:
Ms Ylva Johansson
European Commissioner for Home Affairs
Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200
1049 Brussels
Belgium
cab-johansson-contact@ec.europa.eu
Friday 19 February 2021

Greetings and kind regards,
I was informed that you are going to Albania today for a two-day visit and that you are meeting with high-ranking Albanian officials about the country’s entry into the European Union. Visiting the Greek border with Albania is also included in your schedule.

On behalf of the suffering families of members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO) in Albania, I would like to inform you that this organization, which is run as a destructive mind control cult led by Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, was transferred to Albania in 2016 and the members are held in a remote and isolated camp in Manzë, in Durrës county, western Albania.

Members of the Rajavi cult do not have the right to communicate with their families due to the cultic internal relations, and some of their elderly mothers and fathers have been kept unaware of the situation of their loved ones in the MEK for decades. Not only have they not been allowed any meetings and have not heard their children’s voices, but they have not even received any message from them.

Last year, a petition to the Albanian government was organized by these families at Change.org – which was signed in a matter of weeks by more than 11,250 relatives, friends and acquaintances of the residents in the MEK camp in Albania – calling for the possibility of getting in touch with them and learning about their health and welfare.

Urging Albanian government to let the families to contact their loved ones in MEK camp

Hundreds of separate letters have been sent by families to various Albanian government officials, including Prime Minister Edi Rama, but no response has been received. At the request of the MEK leaders, the Albanian government does not grant visas to Iranian nationals to visit the country, so they cannot pursue their demands on the spot through the judiciary there.

Some MEK members have now left the cult but are under severe financial pressure because they are not supported by the Albanian government or the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and do not have identity documents, work permits or refugee status. The Rajavi Cult’s goal, in cooperation with the Albanian government, is to force them to follow the MEK’s demands. The leaders of the organization also threatened to kill these individuals and the Albanian citizens and journalists who helped them, and have waged psychological warfare against them, and in some cases created legal problems for them.

With the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus pandemic, families have become increasingly concerned about their children’s welfare. Dozens of members of the organization have reportedly died from the disease in recent weeks. Communal living and the lack of access by health officials to the camp have created dangerous conditions for the members.

Albanian public opinion, especially among the residents of Manzë and Durrës, is very concerned about the presence of a terrorist organization in their territory; a group which has been expelled from Iraq for activities that contravened national security there, and which now has an open hand to operate in their country. Many media outlets and human rights activists in Albania have warned of the presence of this terrorist cult, which violates even the most basic rights of its own members.

During this period, suspicious killings took place inside the MEK camp, including the death of Malek Shara’i, but unfortunately the local police were kept from pursuing their investigations. There is also information that the MEK is involved in organized crime in Albania, including money laundering and human trafficking, as well as weapons and drugs smuggling.

Two years ago, Mostafa Mohammadi and his wife, Canadian citizens, went to Tirana to visit their daughter, Somayeh Mohammadi, who is in the MEK camp. They were beaten by elements of the Rajavi cult, and unfortunately not only were their complaints not dealt with, but they were expelled from the country and could not return and pursue the matter through the judiciary.

When visiting the Greek border with Albania, please keep in mind that Ehsan Bidi, a former member of the MEK, was taken to the Greek border without any charges after a year of illegal detention for refusing to cooperate with the organization. He was rescued with the help of other former members, human rights activists and lawyers. He is being held in illegal detention again.

The cases of Ehsan Bidi and Mostafa Mohammadi and Malek Shara’i and dozens of other cases and the suspicious murders that were left uninvestigated show, above all, the corruption of the police, the judiciary and even the media, that Albania is now a safe haven for criminals. And now terrorists have arrived on European soil.

I urge you, as a European Union official, to ask the Albanian government and authorities in your meetings what their response is to the families of the members of the MEK in Albania. Why should the MEK be able to cut off its members from the outside world, especially their families? Why do they not have the right to leave the camp, the right to marry and start a family, and the right to a personal and individual life?

I am eagerly awaiting your response.
Ebrahim Khodabandeh
Nejat Society CEO
Tehran, Iran

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