US Praises Albania for Expeling Iranian Diplomats

Albania on Wednesday expelled the Iranian ambassador and another diplomat over an alleged terrorist plot, whose exact nature has not been made public.

The decision was praised by US President Donald Trump and other US officials and apparently relates to the presence in Albania of several thousand Iranian dissidents from Mojahedin-e-Khalq, MEK, a group whose presence in Albania Iran resents.

"Thank you for your steadfast efforts to stand up to Iran and to counter its destabilizing activities and efforts to silence dissidents around the globe," Trump wrote in a letter to Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama, published on the US embassy Facebook page.

"The leadership you have shown by expelling Iran's ambassador to your country exemplifies our joint efforts to show the Iranian government that its terrorist activities in Europe and around the world will have severe consequences," the letter added.

Albania accepted several waves of Iranian emigrants from 2013 onwards, when the MEK group had to evacuate Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The MEK is a controversial resistance group. Founded in 1965 as a left-leaning opposition to the former Shah's regime, it turned against the Islamic Republic following the 1979 Revolution.

The US listed it as a terrorist organization in 1997 but removed it from the black list in 2012, after it renounced violence.

A part of the group is currently building an extended compound in central Albania to host their comrades while others live around Tirana, or have emigrated elsewhere.

Mostly elderly and in some cases sick, members of the group appear to live a quiet life in Albania, despite which the Iranian government considers them active enemies.

There has been no official...

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