Iran strongly condemned this Saturday the decision of the United States to impose new sanctions against its Ministry of Intelligence, which Washington accuses of having carried out a massive cyberattack against Albania.
Albania, an ally of the United States in NATO, severed relations with Iran on September 7, accusing Tehran of several cyberattacks that tried to destroy its government’s digital infrastructure last July, to no avail, according to Tirana.
The United States, an enemy of Iran, announced a series of sanctions that especially affect the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and its minister, Esmail Khatib, whom it accuses of supervising various cyber espionage and hacking networks in the world.
Iran rejected those accusations as “unfounded” and said Tirana’s decision to break off relations with Tehran was “reckless and irrational”.
The Ministry of “Foreign Affairs strongly condemns the decision of the US Treasury to sanction again the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said the spokesman for that ministry, Nasser Kanani, in a statement.
“The immediate support of the United States for the false accusation of the Albanian government […] shows that the one who concocted this scenario is not Albania, but the American government,” he added.
In addition, the spokesman criticized the United States for having “provided its full support to a terrorist sect”, referring to the People’s Mujahideen, an opposition movement in exile, banned in Iran.
“This criminal organization acts as one of the tools of the United States in the perpetuation of terrorist acts and cyber attacks” against Iran, according to Kanani.