Iran Raps US Sanctions on Intelligence Ministry

By Staff, Agencies

The Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned the imposition of US sanctions on Iran’s Intelligence Ministry for the umpteenth time, saying the move reveals that Washington is behind the new scenario of cyber-attacks against Albania.

In a statement released on Saturday morning, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kanaani strongly condemned the move by the US Department of the Treasury to designate Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and the minister of intelligence for the umpteenth time.

The fresh sanctions, just like the previous illegal US sanctions against the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, could not by any means pose a hindrance to the service that the Intelligence Ministry personnel provide to the Iranian people, he underlined.

Pointing to the allegations of Iran’s involvement in cyber operations against Albania, Kanaani said the US’ immediate support for the bogus accusations leveled by the Albanian government against the Islamic Republic as well as Washington’s hasty move to impose repeated sanctions against Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and its minister of intelligence on the basis of those unfounded and unproven allegations demonstrate clearly that “such scenario has been designed by the US administration, not the government of Albania, and Tirana has fallen victim to the scenario that Washington has invented against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Taking a swipe at the US for forcing the Albanian government and nation to host the terrorist Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization [MKO] for years, providing full support for the notorious terrorists, and equipping and training them in the cyber sphere, he said the criminal MKO group continues to act as a tool of the US in carrying out terrorist operations, cyber-attacks, and psychological warfare against the Iranian government and people.

“The Albanian government’s hosting of a terrorist cult and the US government’s move to support and employ as a tool a cult that has the blood of over 17,000 Iranian statesmen and citizens on its hands are a blatant example of organized support for terrorists against the Iranian government and nation,” Kanaani stated, noting that Iran will use all capacities within the framework of the international law to restore the rights of the Iranian people and protect itself against those ominous plots.

On Friday, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control [OFAC] said it has designated Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and its Minister of Intelligence for what it called engaging in cyber-enabled activities against the United States and its allies.

Albania took in around 3,000 members of the MKO terrorist group in 2016 at the request of Washington, after the group was disowned by Iraq and snubbed by many European countries.

The anti-Iran terrorist group based in Albania has carried out numerous acts of terrorism on Iranian soil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, killing senior political leaders, clerics and ordinary civilians.

The European Union, Canada, the United States, and Japan had previously listed the MKO as a "terrorist organization".

In 2012, the group was taken off the US list of terrorist organizations. The EU followed the suit, removing the group from its list of terrorist organizations.