“There is a small, devilish country in Europe where Americans are cooperating with Iranian traitors, plotting against the Islamic Republic.” The statement belongs to the now-deceased supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei. It was made on the occasion of the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian major general and commander of the Quds Force, in January 2020 near Baghdad International Airport, by an American drone. The “devilish country” was none other than Albania.
The reaction from Albania’s then-president Ilir Meta was quick, responding that Albania is not a devilish country, but a democratic country that has suffered from an unprecedented devilish dictatorship and has come to value human rights as sacred. In the same spirit, current Prime Minister Edi Rama was quick to state that threats do not deter him, as the country, a NATO member, is protected.
But how and why does Iran threaten a small country at the southeastern tip of Europe?
An unknown war has been raging for years between the mullahs of Tehran and Albania over the presence of 3,000 members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) – also known as Mujahedin-e-Khalq – an anti-regime group which Tehran has classified as “enemy terrorists.” These days, with the ongoing hostilities in the Gulf, Iranian media outlets affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard are reporting that structures abroad related to hostile activities will be targeted, with MEK being at the focus.
A cyberattack against the Albanian parliament’s computer systems on March 10 by Iran-linked hackers raised concerns that the “devilish country” in Europe could become a target, not of missiles and drones, but of asymmetric attacks by “lone wolves” and digital terrorists.
The simmering conflict eventually boiled over in a complete collapse of relations between the two countries, with expulsions of diplomats, closures of embassies, cyberattacks and threats, which continues to this day. This is why Rama, with the outbreak of the war in Iran, openly sided with the United States and Israel, stating, among other things: “Albania has faced firsthand the barbaric face of the Tehran regime through its cyber aggressions against our country. For us, this is not abstract geopolitics. It is national security, moral and legal clarity,” he said in February, while former deputy prime minister of Albania and senior associate researcher at the Albanian Institute for International Studies, Genc Pollo, stated that the Tehran regime “threatens not only Israel, America and the Middle East, but also Europe; it threatens Albania as well, and it has shown this in past years.”
Iran and Albania had excellent relations during the regimes of Ruhollah Khomeini and Enver Hoxha. Between 2013 and 2016, approximately 3,000 MEK members were relocated to the Ashraf-3 camp, near Durres. “This relocation took place at the request of the Americans and with the participation of the United Nations,” said Arjan Dyrmishi, director of the Center for the Study of Democracy and Governance (CSDG) in Tirana, speaking to Kathimerini. “The Ashraf-3 camp currently functions as the global headquarters of the MEK, from where various activities are organized, such as the ‘Free Iran’ global summits or actions to exert pressure on Western capitals. It also coordinates with units inside Iran to conduct demonstrations, digital campaigns through social media, and online propaganda targeting the Iranian regime.”
Approach
The theocratic regime’s interest in a small country like Albania had been evident long before the establishment of the anti-regime “enemy” MEK fighters in the small village of Manze. “After the collapse of the communist regime in Albania, Iran sought to use the country as a platform for promoting Shiite Islam in the Balkans, a bridgehead on the European continent. This was facilitated by the favorable relations that had been established with Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, not for religious reasons – since Albania had closed all religious institutions and declared atheism a decade earlier – but as a diplomatic move,” says Dyrmishi.
“Iran was then considered by the Hoxha regime as a potential ally against Albania’s declared enemy, the United States. Iranian cultural centers, such as the Saadi Shirazi Cultural Foundation and the Quran Foundation, promoted Persian literature, Shia hermeneutics, and religious ceremonies, particularly targeting the Bektashi community, a tolerant Sufi-Shiite order that comprised 15%-20% of Albanian Muslims. During the Bosnian War, Iran used its embassy and general presence in Albania to exert influence in Bosnia,” he explains.
“Although Iran’s long-term policy was to try to export the Islamist revolutionary model to Albania and from there to the Balkans, highlighting the religion of Islam in its own version, its expectations clashed with the spread of Wahhabism [an ultra-conservative movement of the Sunni Islamic doctrine] and the influence of Saudi Arabia, the Sunni Gulf countries and later Turkey. Also – and this is very important – substantial penetration was blocked by Albania’s path toward NATO and EU membership, its strongly pro-Western orientation and its secular constitutional character. These factors limited Iran’s influence in the country. The main source of current Iranian threats to Albania does not stem from religious reasons, but from the MEK’s activities against the Iranian regime, and Albania’s support for the US-Israeli alliance,” adds Dyrmishi.
He explains that the intense anti-regime activities of the mujahideen naturally attracted the interest of the Iranian secret services, which placed their camp in the village of Manze under surveillance, while the Israeli and US secret services also joined the spy game.
“As the Iranian embassy in Tirana functioned as a support base for Iranian operations in other regions of Europe, the key role of Ambassador Gholamhossein Mohammadnia, suspected of involvement in terrorist operations, was revealed, resulting in the Albanian authorities ultimately expelling him in December 2018,” he says.
‘Dangerous behavior’
Although no further clarifications were given by the Albanian side at the time, everyone understood the deportations as being related to the presence of the mujahideen and, according to reports in the Albanian and international press, to planned assassinations of their leaders by the Tehran secret services. Two other Iranians had been expelled as soon as they set foot in Tirana airport, having traveled to Albania under the guise of journalists, but the Albanian authorities, “after consultations with allied countries,” immediately turned them back as agents of the Iranian secret services, whose aim was to commit assassinations.
Both the US and Israel welcomed the expulsions, accusing Iran of “dangerous behavior in Europe and across the globe,” while then-US national security advisor John Bolton spoke of “Iranian agents who were preparing a terrorist attack in Albania.” Following Khamenei’s targeting of Albania in 2020, the country’s authorities quarantined the MEK camp, fearing a possible attack by Iranian agents.
Escalation
In July 2022, a group called Homeland Justice, which according to US and Israeli intelligence agencies is linked to Iran, launched a coordinated cyberattack that hit Albania’s digital government portal, e-Albania, and disrupted the country’s essential services. Both the Americans and the US cybersecurity firm Mandiant attributed the attack to Iranian state hackers, while Rama, citing “indisputable evidence,” severed diplomatic relations with Tehran, expelling all embassy staff within 24 hours.
The war between Tehran and MEK would escalate with cyberattacks from both sides, and in August 2023, the special anti-corruption agency known as SPAK, sent Tirana police to conduct checks on the camp. SPAK’s request referred to “suspicions of a cyberwar between the Iranian government and MEK and, ultimately, Albania is the one in danger.” During the police raid, the mujahideen resisted, resulting in clashes with police forces. One person died and the camp has since been sequestered.
Two years later, in 2025, Iranian hackers launched a new cyberattack, this time neutralizing the services of the Municipality of Tirana. As the Tirana Times noted, this cyberattack comes after Albania “clearly aligned itself with Israel, joining forces with Western allies in condemning Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its recent attacks on Israeli targets.” In a post on Telegram, the hackers said, “We warned you to expel terrorists from your territory, but you welcomed them as legal refugees. Now your leaders are being punished.”
The Albanian authorities, in response to the ongoing war in the Middle East, have isolated the MEK camp, prohibiting entry and exit from it. Their concerns are fueled by the possibility of a hybrid war by Iran with terrorist attacks around the world – a possibility that also makes Albania a possible target. A news website citing information from Iranian media outlets linked to the theocratic regime reported that Tehran is considering targeting structures it considers to be related to “hostile activities,” including the mujahideen of Albania.
Can Iran’s missiles reach Tirana, transferring the Middle East war to Europe? According to former Minister of the Interior and general, Sander Lleshi, “today Albania is not threatened by air, but Iran can strike us in other ways. We cannot allow hostile countries to operate freely and openly with their agents on Albanian soil. Albanian intelligence services must provide answers as to how it is possible for Iranian agents to operate freely in Albania.”