Ana Gomes MEP and Patricia Lalonde MEP host a round table in the European Parliament to discuss the Mojahedine-E Khalq (MEK) Threat in Albania.
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The participants included UNHCR representative, Albanian opposition politicians, Albanian embassy rep, reps from the Albanian Delegation in parliament, reps from EU security, and reporters from various media.
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EUReporter exclusive interview with Ana Gomes MEP and Patricia Lalonde MEP (Mojahedin Khalq, MEK, Threat in Albania – Parliamentary Round Table)
Mojahedine-E Khalq (MEK) Threat in Albania – Ana Gomes MEP
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Mojahedine-E Khalq (MEK) Threat in Albania – Patricia Lalonde MEP
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EUReporter
Mojahedine-E Khalq (MEK) Threat in Albania – Dr Olsi Jazexhi
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Mojahedine-E Khalq (MEK) Threat in Albania – Anne Khodabandeh – Open Minds
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EUReporter,
Below is the debate that was organized at the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium on 10 April 2018, which has terrified the Iranian jihadists of Albania into attacking the participants of this debate in their outlets and their paid for published writing.
The debate below was organized by MEPs Ana Gomes and Patricia Lalonde. European MPs demanded that through this debate, the European Union’s political environment should be alerted to the cultic, terrorist, deceitful and deceptive nature of the Iranian terrorist organization which is sheltering in Albania. In the event, French MP Patricia Lalonde and Portuguese MP Ana Gomes talked about their experiences with this terrorist group in Iraq and Europe and the concern that they have about the penetration of this group into the offices of the European Union.
Dr. Nicola Pedde, director of the Institute for Global Studies in Italy, examined the deceptive and deceiful methods of the Mojahedin group and the Fake News it produces, and the pressures and threats that this group poses for Italy, Italian businesses, Albania and Europe’s relations with Iran.
Dr. Olsi Jazexhi, director of the Free Media Institute, presented the situation of the Iranian Mojahedin in Albania, the threat they pose for media freedom, intellectual freedom, and religious tolerance in Albania. Dr. Jazexhiu showed how the Mojahedin have launched a recruiting campaign of politicians and citizens in Albania, how they commit calls for terrorism, punishable by law in the Republic of Albania, and how they continuously produce Fake News to threaten and terrorize Albanian public opinion. He pointed out that the Mojahedin do not want to integrate into Albanian society as other migrants do, but live instead in paramilitary compounds for jihadist purposes.
Migena Balla, a lawyer based in Tirana, explained her experience with Mojahedin dissociates, people who want to abandon jihad and deradicalize, but who are, unfortunately, not supported by the Albanian state and are labelled and threatened as ‘Iranian agents’ by the MEK terrorist organization if they behave like free citizens or contact their family members in Iran. She showed the psychological pressure and slavery that Mujahideen force on their members who threaten them and keep them isolated from the wider world.
Anne Khodabandeh, director of Open Minds organization and consultant in the field of deradicalization in Great Britain, exposed the cultic and deceptive nature of the Mojahedin and the manipulative methods they are using in Albania and have used before in Iraq, and the threat that the Mojahedin pose for the Albanian public.
The debate was attended by some former Mojahedin who have abandoned jihad and deradicalized, several European journalists and security experts who also participated in the debate. The debate can be followed in the links below. This open debate was attacked by the Mojahedin in their outlets and in some media in Albania, accused of being a prelude to terrorist attacks against the Mojahedin in Albania. However, the Mojahedin failed to intimidate the participants in the debate and to stop their freedom to discuss the aggressive and terrorist nature of the Mojahedin organization:
Gazeta Impakt, Reporting from EU Parliament
The office of Ana Gomes MEP,
10th April, 16H30 to 18H
Speakers:
Vabba Vannuccini. Journalist of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica
Nicola Pedde, Rome based Institute for Global Studies
Olsi Jazexhi, Director of the Free Media Institute in Tirana
Migena Balla, Lawyer B&B Stutio Legale in Tirana
Anne Khodabandeh, Open Minds, De-Radicalisation Consultant.
Hosted by: Anna Gomes MEP & Particia Lalonde MEP
MEP Ana Gomes and MEP Patricia Lalonde would like to invite you to attend their event: “Mojahedin-E Khalq (MEK) threat in Albania” on April 10th, from 16h30 to 18h.
This event will take place at the European Parliament, in room A3H-1.
If you wish to attend, we would kindly ask you to provide the following information if an accreditation to the European Parliament is needed:
First name:
Last name:
Date of Birth:
Nationality:
ID Card or Passport number:
Type of identification document (if it is ID or Passport):
The gathering of the Mojahedin was also attended by three Albanian politicians. They were Pandeli Majko, Minister for the Diaspora in the present Albanian government. Majko served as Minister of the Interior during the era of secret CIA renditions in Eastern Europe when Albania was used by the CIA to rendition and torture people. Majko who has never denied his cooperation with the CIA or the existence of secret prisons in Albania, has defended the illegal renditions and torture and has criticized those who spoke against the torture chambers of the CIA.
The second politician was Fatmir Mediu, a former disgraced Minister of Defense, who is blamed in Albania for weapon trafficking to Afghanistan and the Gerdec explosion and killings. The Gerdec explosion which killed 26 Albanians, injured hundreds, and damaged or destroyed over two thousand homes was part of an operation by Fatmir Mediu and American contractors to fake old Albanian ammunition and sell them as new to Afghanistan.
The third politician was Elona Gjebrea, who served as deputy Minister of the Interior for Albania’s infamous Minister of Interior Saimir Tahiri (2013-2017) and is now under investigation for possible links with a notorious Albanian mafia gang known as the Habilaj brothers.
Giuliani told to the Mojahedin that the US and the Albanian government see them as the only future for Iran, and the necessary thing to do at this moment is regime change. Pandeli Majko, the Minister of Diaspora in the Edi Rama’s government supported Giuliani’s claim and told the Mojahedin that his dream is to return to Tehran with the Mojahedin. Elona Gjebrea and Fatmir Mediu did the same. They supported the Mojahedin in their violent mission for regime change in Iran. Rudi Giuliani emboldened the Mojahedin by telling them that changes are coming to Washington. John Bolton, their fierce supporter is going to become President Trump’s National Security Advisor and he wants a regime change in Iran.
The threats of Giuliani against Iran have been instrumentalized in recent months with mass surveillance and attacks on Iranian and Shiia Muslim institutions in Albania and Kosovo. The Israelis are very vigilant against the Iranian influence in the Balkans too. They instruct their Albanian partners to target Iran and its institutions, even though Iran has never had any problem with any Balkan country. With the arrival of the Mojahedin in Albania, the anti-Iran and anti-Shiia hysteria is becoming more and more public. The Mojahedin, who act as a proxy army for the US and Israel, claim that Iran is very influential in Albania and is working with its agents to discredit their fight for regime change. In recent months they have launched a number of smear attacks against Iranian institutions and the embassy in Tirana. On March 15 they attacked a group of Albanian intellectuals headed by the ex-president of Albania, Rexhep Mejdani who participated in a scientific conference in Tehran, claiming that they were part of a plot by Tehran to discredit them. The Mojahedin, who are having many of their members abandon the organization in Albania, attack the defectors by insulting them as Iranian agents and threaten to assassinate them. The UNHCR which is supposed to help all war refugees has sided with the Mojahedin and refuses to support the defectors financially and asks them to go back to their Mojahedin camp if they want to get financial support. When local Albanian TV stations dare to present the claims of the defectors who show how they are abused, enslaved and radicalized by MEK, the Mojahedin attack the Albanian media claiming that they have been bought by Iran.
In face of the threats that MEK makes against Albanian intellectuals, media and its defectors, the Albanian government keeps silent, even though a recent police report claims that the Mojahedin might assassinate some of the defectors who have abandoned the organization. While the Albanian government and its courts are very vigilant to jail any Albanian Salafi as a terrorist if they make calls for regime change in Syria or praise ISIS, so far no actions have been taken against the Iranian Mojahedin, Albanian or US politicians who support the MEK jihad and make calls for regime change in Iran, even though the Albanian the criminal code punishes such calls with imprisonment from four up to ten years. The Albanian government and its courts have not taken any action even against those Mojahedin who have threatened to assassinate their defectors in Albania.
The Albanian government who is ordered by people like John Bolton, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani to do all they can to support the Mojahedin, have finally started to attack even Shiia and Sufi religious institutions in Albania. On March 22, 2018 the anti-terror police disrupted the ceremony of Novruz that the World Headquarters of Bektashism organized in Tirana. The ceremony of the liberal Muslim Sufi sect was disrupted when anti-terrorism police detained two retired Iranian journalists and an Iraqi-German citizen who were celebrating the Novruz in the Grand Sufi Teqe. The invitees were officially invited to the ceremony by Baba Mondi, the Grand Dervish of the Bektashis. However the Albanian anti-terror units who take note of complains by MEK about Iranian influence and conspiracy against them, detained and interrogated as terrorists for 7 hours the two retired Iranian journalists who were covering the Bektashi festival. Even though the journalists were later released, this event shocked the Bektashi community and the Iranian cultural NGO-s who operate in Albania.
The attacks that the Mojahedin are launching against local Muslim communities, academics and intellectuals, journalists and media are shocking the Albanian public. Until now they have seen the Mojahedin as some foreign terrorist leftovers that the USA wanted to dump in Albania after they were expelled from Iraq. However, the recent media and police attacks are showing to the Albanian public that the Mojahedin are a threat not only to Iran, but to Albania too. On the other hand, the calls from US senators like Rudy Giuliani, John Bolton and John McCain on the Mojahedin who are based in Albania to go and wage jihad in Iran, make many Albanians worried and upset. Many ask: if the USA wants to use the Mojahedin to fight Iran, why don’t they host them in the USA instead of Albania? The Albanian public has not and has never had any problem with Iran. Why is the American government blackmailing Albania and using it as a launchpad for its next terrorist war against another Middle Eastern country? Was it not enough for the US administration to allow the Saudis to radicalize the Muslim youths in the Balkans and send them to Syria for jihad, but now they are creating another jihad and the Muslims of the Balkans are again to pay the price?
Mr. Rudy Giuliani! Mr. John Bolton! Can you please take your Mojahedin to the USA and from there do anything you want! We do not want to fight another Middle Eastern war for you. Leave us alone, please!
Olsi Jazexhi, Global research
In Albania last week, two Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) members asked permission from their commanders to leave their base, Camp Ashraf Three in Manza, to visit the graves of MEK buried on the outskirts of Tirana. After leaving the camp they travelled to the UNHCR in Tirana to ask for refuge. They are now living among over two hundred other dissociated members in Tirana.
This event tells us several disturbing things about the MEK in Albania.
First, that MEK members must ask permission for an activity as simple as visiting a graveyard. Second, that members are trying to escape the group. Conditions inside Camp Ashraf Three are difficult to independently ascertain. It is a closed camp. Not even government agencies such as security services and customs are allowed inside. The UNHCR cannot freely visit and inspect the premises. But according to conversations with dissociated members in Albania, it seems the residents are suffering the same conditions as they did in Iraq. There they were held in conditions of modern slavery and forced to undertake work for the group with no pay. Every aspect of their everyday lives was dictated by the leader Maryam Rajavi (who took over after the death of the cult leader Massoud Rajavi); who they spoke with, what they believed in and even what they ate and wore.
The event also alerts us to the fact that many MEK are dying in Albania. According to dissociated members speaking anonymously, there are three times as many deaths by natural causes in Albania as there were in Iraq. In Iraq the MEK excuse was “no doctors”. It would be interesting to discover what the MEK excuse is now.
One reason, of course, is that many of the MEK are elderly, many are sick. The average age of MEK members is above 60. At this age most people would be looking forward to a comfortable and relaxed retirement, to allow the younger generation to take over their work. Not the MEK. They have no younger generation after forced divorces and the removal of children left an ageing polity. Members must work until they die. Recruitment has proved extremely difficult because the group is hated by almost all Iranians. As a result, the MEK resorts to deceptive recruitment and coercive control for maintaining members.
One aspect of this deception is that rather than being ‘refugees’ as the MEK claim, the members have legal status in Albania. The government of Iraq did not allow them refugee status in Iraq because they are terrorists. They were brought to Albania by the UNHCR without travel documents; each migrant was given a piece of paper stating, ‘on humanitarian grounds’. Similarly, the government of Albania does not allow the MEK members or ex-members to be given either refugee status or residence or work permits. The secret agreement between Albania, the US and the MEK leader struck in 2013 included the provision for de-radicalisation once the members arrived in Tirana. This did not happen; the earmarked budget remains untouched in the American embassy, the MEK remain radicalised for terrorism.
The graveyard also raises another disturbing issue. There are sixteen public graves. It is reported that many others have since died but the MEK now buries them inside Camp Ashraf Three. It has already been ascertained that independent investigation cannot take place there, so it is not known how many graves there are. In Iraq there were hundreds.
The number of graves matters. When the US army detained the MEK in 2003, there were 3,800 members. (See RAND Corporation – The Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq A Policy Conundrum, Summary xiii.) Over the next fifteen years, attrition of members through dissociation, conflict, deaths by natural causes, suicide and murder meant that when the UNHCR brought the last group of MEK to Albania in September 2016, the total number relocated was 2,901 individuals with 2,745 remaining at the end of that year. Since then well over two hundred have left; some departed Albania, around two hundred remain destitute in the country.
However, according to a report from US Senator Robert Torricelli, an official representative of the MEK, there are currently over four thousand MEK in Camp Ashraf Three. Where did the extra numbers come from? Are these MEK or are they the widows and orphans of killed Daesh members which investigative journalist Gjergji Thanasi discovered were destined to be the next controversial influx of undesirables dumped on Albania by the Americans. Have some already arrived?
Thanasi made the discovery while investigating import permit irregularities linked to the construction of MEK’s closed Camp Ashraf Three. This led to the further discovery that MEK is not registered for tax and does not conform to any Albanian law or customs or morals. And since the MEK members are not registered anywhere – they have no identification documents, have no work permits and pay no taxes – they could be anyone. The four thousand residents of Camp Ashraf Three – with its small-arms firing range, reinforced concrete armoury, three-meter wall and guard turrets – could be literally anyone.
Yet instead of investigating this disturbing situation, with some notable exceptions, Albania’s media have seen fit to uncritically publish the MEK’s defamatory statements aimed at silencing critics and diverting attention from their criticisms. When confidence tricksters do this, it is called ‘misdirection’; divert the attention of the target while they are robbed. When the MEK do it, it is called politics.
If it was the intention of some Albanian media outlets to politicise the MEK presence in the country, and by doing so bring the conflict between America, Israel and Saudi Arabia with Iran, to Tirana, then they have succeeded. However, it is surely not the role of an independent, objective media to act as a mouthpiece for any side. It is far more fitting for serious journalism to investigate the serious and evidenced allegations of human rights abuses, modern slavery, tax evasion, people trafficking, political corruption and facilitating terrorism which are levelled against the MEK, and report the facts to their country’s citizens.
Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton), Balkan Post
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Anne Khodabandeh, is an expert in anti-terrorist activities and a long-standing activist in the field of deradicalization of extremists. She has written several articles and books on this subject, along with her husband, who is of Iranian origin.
Gazeta Impakt has learned exclusively that two Iranian nationals, public television journalists for IRIB, who were detained today by anti-terror police on suspicion of terrorist acts, have been freed after being found innocent. The Iranian journalists were detained with another group of Iraqi-German nationals and other foreigners who had been officially invited to the Bektashi World Headquarters to celebrate Nouruz Day.
The Iranian nationals, who were detained by the National Intelligence Service and the anti-terror unit with the names F. Z., 65 and S.M., 59, were held at the police station from 11.00 am to 6.30 pm. The journalists, who had come to Albania on an official invitation from the Bektashi World Headquarters, were questioned about the Mojahedin, or MEK, terrorist group that Albania has hosted and protected since 2013. Anti-terrorist officials suspected that the journalists intended to commit terrorist acts against the Mojahedin terrorist group.
The ban on Iranian journalists was made on the order of Maryam Rajavi, the head of the Mojahedin terrorist organization – an organization known as the Rajavi Cult or the National Resistance Council of Iran. Maryam Rajavi complains in her speeches and in meetings with US senators, etc., that Iran has introduced secret agents to Albania in order to eliminate her Iranian jihadists who have killed thousands in Iran in the past. Maryam Rajavi and her organization attacked all those Albanian media which criticize this organization, accusing them of being related to the Brenshme Ministry or paid by Iran; attacking Albanian academics who go to Iran for scientific conferences or even Iranian ex-members in Albania who are abandoning this organization. Apparently, Maryam Rajavi’s finest hysteria is directed against senior Iranian IRIB journalists who had come to Albania to celebrate Nouruz Day with their Bektashi brethren. Maryam Rajavi, who suffers from the jealousy and hysteria of an impotent old man and desperate for power, demands that Albania and Albanians have no connection with Iran, against which the Mojahedin have declared war. Preferably widow Maryam Rajavi would like Albanian citizens to head off former Prime Minister Pandeli Majko in going to Iran to make jihad against Iran in order for Rajavi to become president of the country.
The ban on Iranian journalists angered the Bektashi community and their own president, Baba Edmond Brahimaj, who sent his secretary to the Tirana Police Department and demanded the release of the journalists. The attack on Iranian journalists, their detention as if they were terrorists, under Maryam Rajavi’s orders, shows that Albania has already turned into a state that has been put in the service of international terrorism and the terrorist organization MEK. This organization, which two days ago celebrated Novruz in Tirana with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is determined in its violent and terrorist fight against Iran. Encouraged by many US and Israeli extremist circles, Rajavi wants to undertake terrorist acts against Iran, thus breaking the Albanian criminal code, which condemns terrorist activity.
Maryam Rajavi’s campaign of defamation against the free media, Albanian academics and Iranian journalists, shows the anti-democratic schizophrenia of this organization. The Iranian Mojahedin do not believe in freedom of thought and of the press.
They are a dictatorial group that worships terrorism and violence. In the past, they have killed hundreds of journalists, intellectuals, and civil society activists in Iran, Iraq and Turkey. Hereinafter, Albania will face the hysteria and terrorism of the Iranian Mojahedin who cannot live in a free and democratic world.
But apparently, the recent ban on Iranian journalists has proved fruitless. IT turns out that the Iranian journalists were journalists and were not paid killers. Maryam Rajavi was left unsuccessful and gob-smacked. Iran did not bring any man for the desperate widow.
Gazeta Impakt, Tirana, Albania,Translated by Iran Interlink
The following is a police or Albanian Information Service report published in Fax Web English on March 23, 2018. This report shows the specific number of Iranian jihadists in Albania, the problems they have with each other, the conflicts and killings against each other in the past, and the history of this terrorist organization. The report highlights the violent attacks and threats of murder that the MEK is making against the defectors who have decided to abandon jihad and deradicalize in Albania, and who the MEK accuse of acting as agents of Iran. Albanian police and SHISH are taking the threats that MEK is making against these deradicalized jihadists in Albania seriously and has placed them under protection from the possibility of assassination by Maryam Rajavi’s extremists.
The Iranian jihadist organization, known as Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), Rajavi Cult or the National Council of Resistance of Iran, has been present in Albania since 2013, from where it is constantly calling for violent terrorist attacks against Iran, thus breaking Albanian laws; the Albanian criminal code imposes prison sentences for the promotion of war and terrorism. Since the MEK was brought to Albania by the US Intelligence services and used as a diversionary and terrorist organization against Iran and is protected by US-based Senators such as John Bolton and John McCain, the MEK’s violations of Albanian laws are ignored by the Albanian authorities. Kosovo ignored the presence of takfiri jihadists in Albania who called for jihad against Syria in 2011 to 2013 and then joined terrorist organizations like ISIS or Jabhat al-Nusra.
Below is the report published on Fax Web which shows the situation of MEK in Albania:
To date, 2745 Iranian nationals have been given refuge in the territory of the Republic of Albania over several years.
These residents are members of the MEK organization otherwise known as the Iranian opposition.
The arrival in our country of Iranian asylum seekers from the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran could pose implications to our internal security, as these individuals are deeply indoctrinated, have been part of military structures, and have participated in fighting a war and in acts of terror.
The Mojahedin Khalq or the Iranian Mojahedin organization, otherwise known as MEK and PMOI, is a revolutionary Marxist-Islamic group founded in 1965.
On 06.01.2018, an Iranian national (Hassan Bidi), a former member of the MEK (dissociated), resident in Tirana, made a complaint to Police Station No.1 after having his life threatened by some members of the MEK.
On 09.02.2018 three Iranian nationals (Bahman Azami, Sadollah Seyfi, Manouchehr Abdi) former members of the MEK (dissociated), resident in Tirana, have complained that their lives have been threatened by some members of the MEK.
On 12.02.2018, Top Channel television broadcast interviews of three Iranian nationals (dissociated MEK) on Top Channel TV, who expressed their opinions against the ideology of the MEK organization and have alleged that threats against their lives MEK are serious.
Earlier in Iraq the MEK have murdered former members who dissociated from this organization because they publicly stood in opposition to the organization’s activities with the aim of damaging its cause.
From the above, and the interviews given by Iranian nationals on the Fiks Fare show of 12.02.2018, as well as the reports of the police commissariat of these situations, the timings, the course of action and their behavior, are similar to the ‘Modus Operandi’ that occurred earlier in Iraq.
Following indications of the actions and behaviors of the Iranian nationals in question who are currently disconnected from this organization, there are reasonable grounds for suspicion that this situation is the same as before in Iraq which resulted in murder.
The MEK was active during the Iranian Islamic revolution, but state institutions established after the revolution regarded it as a threat. In order to survive, the group was forced to abandon legality and in 1981 the leader of this organization, Massoud Rajavi, fled to France, where he also created the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
In Iraq in 1986, the MEK created the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA) and fought against Iran alongside Saddam Hussein.
In 1990, MEK had numerous training camps in Iraq and undertook numerous attacks against Iran.
In 1997, MEK was listed by the US as a terrorist organization and was then placed on the European and Canadian lists.
Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, MEK changed strategy and progressively abandoned its attacks. In 2003, after the American invasion of Iraq, the MEK announced it had abandoned armed attacks and kept control only of ‘Camp Ashraf’.
On 01.01.2009, Camp Ashraf with a surface area of 36 km2 was placed under the control of Iraqi forces.
On 26 January 2009, after lobbying in Great Britain, the MEK managed to be removed from the European list of terrorist organizations.
On 28 July 2009, Iraqi security forces entered Camp Ashraf to install a police station, but the Mojahedin put up violent resistance, forcing the Iraqis to use force. As a result, 8 people were killed, dozens were injured and 36 Mojahedin were arrested.
On December 15, 2009, Iraqi forces again tried to get Ashraf residents out of the camp, but in the face of the oppositional attitude of the Mujahideen, and the decision not to use violence, Iraqi forces were forced to retreat.
On April 8, 2011, Iraqi forces attempted to take part of Camp Ashraf. As a result of clashes, 34 people died and about 300 were injured.
After many negotiations, the MEK accepted that the Mojahedin members would transfer from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty.
These Iranian nationals have been given refuge and accommodated in our country under an agreement with the UNHCR; mainly in the Vores area, Shato Linza complex and other rented residences in the districts of Tirana and Durres.
According to the latest information it is apparent that so far around 1500 MEK members have been transferred to Manez, Durres where a complex is being built, and accommodated in tents and other customized facilities. The area purchased is 32 hectares.
There are about 2745 MEK members in our country.
11 members have died.
80 have left our country with regular papers.
65 were illegally removed.
Mojahedin who continue to be full members of MEK and follow their rules for living as members are 2621.
Mojahedin dissociated from MEK are 124 people.
Since taking up residence in our country, around 124 members of the MEK have dissociated from the organization because they are against the ideology of this sectarian movement.
Recently, several members who have left the organization have been subjected to MEK threats which labels them as traitors and spies in the service of the Iranian Embassy in Tirana.
GazetaInpact, Tirana,Albania
An organization fighting for the collapse of the current form of government in Iran called the NCRI (National Council of Resistance of Iran) has publicly called on the Albanian government to expel from Albania two Iranian diplomats accredited in Tirana. The NCRI demands that the Albanian government expel the First Secretary of the Iranian Embassy in Tirana, Mostafa Roodaki and Cultural Attaché, Seyed Ahmad Hosseini Alast. This request is based on the April 1997 EU Resolution on the expulsion of Iranian spies accredited under diplomatic cover.
According to the NCRI, the two diplomats are simply spies of the Iranian secret service called VAJA. Despite the fact that the NCRI errs about the functions attributed to one of the aforementioned persons, this call is extremely problematic for the Albanian government, especially Minister Bushati and Xhafa, who according to Albanian law has the authority to designate a foreign diplomat accredited in Tirana persona non-grata. It should be noted that, according to the official Diplomatic List of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the First Secretary at the Iranian Embassy in Tirana is Mr. Fereeydon Zandi.
A demand from a fugitive Iranian fugitive organization should not be taken seriously by the Albanian authorities, but when this organization has ‘heavyweight minders’ in the international arena, such a call can be extremely problematic!
On March 5-6, a scientific symposium on the work of our national poet Naim Frashëri was held at Modares University in Tehran. The symposium, along with scientific authorities from the Republic of Kosovo, FYROM and Bosnia, was also attended by prominent Albanian personalities such as Dr. Prof. Rexhep Meidani, former President of the Republic of Albania, Academician Floresha Dado, Dr. Arian Leka lecturer at the Academy of Arts etc. The NCRI alleges that organisations such Habilian or Didban Centre act as instruments of the Iranian VAJA and used this symposium to influence Albanian VIPs against the Mojahedin (MEK) organization housed in Camp Ashraf Three in Manza near Durrës.
In this context, it remains to be seen how Bushati and Xhafa will react to this request for the expulsion of Iranian diplomats, as well as the request from Nejat Association, which appealed to the Albanian authorities to provide visas and enable the families of Mojahedin members to travel from Iran to Albania and meet with their loved ones living in Manza.
The situation also becomes more problematic because of Prime Minister Rama’s personal enmity toward former President Meidani. We recall here the public show that Rama performed against Meidani when he became Public Recorder (Qatip) – when he sponsored the SP program and then dropped this program together with Meidani, or when the first act undertaken by the Director of the Customs of Spiropali, Rama’s ‘protégé’, was the dismissal of the son of former President Meidani, or the extremely immoral attacks undertaken by Rama against the wife of former President Meidani. It remains to see how the two Rama ministers will treat Iran’s ‘hot potato’.
To add a little humour in our writing, we can confirm without fear or favour that former Prime Minister Pandeli Majko will eat ice crea in the Gelato La Pasticceria at the Golestan Shopping Centre in Tehran after the Mojahedin of Makkah take over Iran, and at the same time, former President Rexhep Meidani will drink coffee at the ‘Lamiz’ cafe in Tajrish Square in Tehran after Iran’s current government destroys the Mojahedin’s military camp at Manza. The British boast of their humour, but indeed, English humour is far inferior to the humour of Albanian politicians!!!!! / GJERGJ THANASI /CNA.al
Gjergi Thanasi, City News Albania
Translated by Iran Interlink
