Police said cell planned attacks on exiled Iranian opposition group. Others wonder if Albania is being drawn into US and Israeli fight with Iran
\nMEK defectors raise doubts over alleged Iranian ‘terror cell’ in Albania<\/p>\n
Albanian police recently announced that they had discovered a terror ring, run by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which had planned attacks on an exiled Iranian opposition group living in Albania. \u2018If it was true, why hasn\u2019t Interpol arrested them?\u2019 Gjergj Erebara, a journalist with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, said the press conference \u2013 which he attended \u2013 was unusual, to say the least. \u201cIf it was true, why hasn\u2019t Interpol arrested them? Albania is a very poor country where corruption is rife, police can be bought,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n MEE repeatedly asked the Albanian police for further details about the alleged ring, but a spokesperson declined to comment. The Iranian Embassy in Tirana refused to comment. From Iran to Albania<\/strong> Covert playground<\/strong> US-Albanian ties<\/strong> \u201cWe just want a normal life, to get married and have a family. We have no citizenship, no passports, no land rights. We came here on humanitarian grounds, but we are treated like criminals,\u201d Heyrani said. \u201cI have no choice but to live here. I can\u2019t go back to Iran. They do not accept us.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Heyrani said that recently his image was splashed on Albanian television where he was described as an enemy of the state. Suddaf Chaudry, Middle East Eye<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Police said cell planned attacks on exiled Iranian opposition group. Others wonder if Albania is being drawn into US and Israeli fight with Iran MEK defectors raise doubts over alleged…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[667],"tags":[680],"module":[81],"ctype":[17],"blog":[109],"class_list":["post-10332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-albania","tag-mko-members-in-albania","module-article","ctype-story","blog-western-bloggers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10332"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=10332"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=10332"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=10332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cA terrorist cell of the foreign operations unit of Iranian Quds was discovered lately by Albanian intelligence institutions,\u201d<\/em> Police Director General Ardi Veliu said at a press conference in late October.
\nThe goal of the ring, Veliu said, was to strike the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an exiled Iranian opposition group which has been based in Albania for the past three years.
\nNames of group members were also released, including Alireza Naghashzadeh, whom Veliu identified as the cell\u2019s operations chief and a member of the Quds Force, the arm of the revolutionary guards which conducts foreign operations.
\nThe ring, he added, had been identified by sources inside it.
\nBut no arrests have been made and Albania has yet to request international arrest warrants for the alleged attackers, leaving local journalists and Iranian dissidents with lingering doubts.<\/p>\n
\n\u2013 Hassan Heyrani, former MEK member<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n\u201cAlbanian police gave no proof to substantiate its claims. They said they have discovered the \u201cterrorist cell\u201d, but they didn\u2019t make any arrests,\u201d<\/strong> Erebara said.
\nHassan Heyrani, a former high-ranking MEK member who defected from the group in 2017, said he believes the story that the police presented is fabricated.<\/p>\n
\nWithout further detail, some observers say they have been left wondering if the announcement is a sign that the Balkan country is being drawn further into America\u2019s \u2013 and Israel\u2019s \u2013 fight to overthrow the Iranian government.<\/p>\n
\nEstablished in 1965 as an Islamist-socialist movement, the MEK rose up against the rule of the Shah of Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but soon ran afoul of new leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
\nFacing a deadly crackdown, the MEK launched attacks on government officials and security forces and eventually was forced to flee the country, first to France and then eventually to Iraq.
\nMEK defectors raise doubts over alleged Iranian ‘terror cell’ in Albania
\nMassoud Rajavi, who led the MEK until he disappeared in 2003, and his wife Maryam, who now leads the group, seen in Paris in 1985 (AFP)
\nThe group, whose activities have been described as cultish, with a goal of overthrowing the Iranian government using violence and indoctrination, was designated for more than a decade by both the US and the UK as a terrorist organisation.
\nBut in recent years, and as both countries delisted the group, the MEK has become a favourite of anti-Iran hawks in the US and Europe who see it as a weapon against the government in Tehran.
\nBetween 2014 and 2016, at the bequest of the US, at least 2,700 MEK members were resettled in Albania after the group came under attack at Camp Ashraf, the Iraqi refugee camp where they had been living since the mid-1980s.
\nThese days, the group lives in a fortified camp in the country\u2019s northwest, heavily protected by Albanian authorities.<\/p>\n
\nAnalysts say the group\u2019s presence in Albania has raised alarm bells in Tehran and there have been reports that prominent members of the group have been under surveillance globally.
\nRuslan Trad, an independent researcher focused on Iranian influence in the Balkans and co-founder of De Re Militari, said he believes Albania is now \u201ca subject of espionage games\u201d between Israel, Iran and the US.
\nTrad said Iran\u2019s presence in Albania must be understood in the context of Tehran\u2019s activities over the past two decades in the Balkans where it has been quietly establishing a foothold, triggering the concerns of western governments that the conflict with Iran had arrived in their backyard.
\nA 2012 attack killing five Israeli tourists, a bus driver and the bomber outside the airport in the Bulgarian city of Burgas, which Bulgarian intelligence eventually attributed to Hezbollah, was seen by many analysts as part of the covert war between Iran and Israel. Hezbollah denied its involvement.
\nSince then, however, Trad said he believes the Balkans have become an attractive location for Hezbollah, according to locally based Hezbollah members and sympathisers he has interviewed.
\n\u201cHezbollah is using Kosovo and Macedonia as a logistic centre and transit path, and Bulgaria as a hub,\u201d he explained. He believes Hezbollah is heavily linked to Balkan mafia circles.
\nIn turn, the activity has seen the Israelis step up their own operations in the Balkans, he said: \u201cThe Albanian authorities are probably cooperating with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHeyrani, the former MEK member who defected, said he believes the main reason Albania has been so supportive of the MEK is a result of the close relations between Albania and the US.
\n\u201cAlbania is under American control and also MEK is supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC),\u201d he said, referring to the appearance of MEK members in an AIPAC-funded TV commercial against the Iran nuclear deal in 2015.
\nUnder Donald Trump\u2019s administration, hawkish support for the MEK has continued, including from now-former security advisor John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
\nBolton praised Albanian President Edi Rama at the end of last year for expelling the Iranian ambassador in Tirana in direct relation to an alleged terror plot targeting MEK members.
\nTrump wrote a letter acknowledging Albania\u2019s \u201csteadfast efforts to stand up to Iran and to counter its destabilising activities and efforts to silence dissidents around the globe\u201d.
\nThe continued support and safety measures that the Albanian government provides the MEK \u2013 now with the added questions about the alleged terror cell \u2013 has led many dissidents who have left the group to be concerned about their futures.
\nMEE spoke to several MEK defectors, several on condition of anonymity, who said they were distressed about what would come next for them, given the government\u2019s stance.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThey have no evidence, just like the alleged terror plot,\u201d he said. \u201cBut here in Albania that is not important.\u201d<\/p>\n