Tirana restrains mullahs’ terrorism in Europe with pre-emptive measures

Nora Bandari

The Albanian government has intensified its measures to counter any terrorist acts in the country, as it closed the Iranian regime’s center for exporting terrorism in Albania’s capital, Tirana.

Local newspapers reported on Thursday, January 23 that two Iranian institutions were closed due to suspicious activities: the Saadi School and the Center for Cultural Consultations.

Albanian Education Minister Besa Shahini said in statements to the American news channel ABC News that the ministry requested the return of all remaining fees for students and the sending of all the documents necessary for registration in other schools.

It is worth noting that Albania welcomed the targeting of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani in an American operation that targeted his car in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on January 3.

Iran’s terrorism

The relationship between Albania and Iran is strained due to the European state embracing members of the PMOI opposing the Iranian regime, which prompted some of the leaders of the Revolutionary Guards to plan terrorist attacks against members of the organization in Albania. The Albanian government announced in October 2019 that it had discovered a network of the Revolutionary Guards’ external wing that planned terrorist attacks to target the PMOI members.

In December 2018, this prompted Tirana to expel two Iranian diplomats on charges of illegal activities that threaten the country’s security, namely Gholamhossein Mohammadnia, Tehran’s ambassador to Albania, and Mostafa Roodaki, the first consul of the embassy.

After the killing of Soleimani, the Albanian government on January 15 requested two Iranian diplomats to leave the country, namely Muhammad Biman Nemati, an adviser at the Iranian embassy, ​​and Ahmed Hosseini, head of the cultural attaché, in anticipation of their planning of terrorist acts.

European response to mullahs’ activities

In a special statement to the Reference, Ahmad Qabbal, a political researcher specializing in Iranian affairs at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s activity in European countries is divided between cultural to attract Shiites in Europe, and the formation of political and intelligence pressure groups seeking to eliminate Iranian opposition symbols abroad.

Qabbal pointed out that Albania in particular has been facing intelligence activity as a result of its containment of the major Iranian opposition organizations, indicating that Tirana has finally begun to monitor this activity and has taken measures affecting relations with the Iranian regime, which may draw the attention of other European parties to the activity of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and intelligence. But these measures will not stop the Iranian regime from its efforts to penetrate European societies to target and liquidate its opposition.

The recent Albanian measures are supposed to face Iranian reaction, but the Tehran regime will try to calm the situation and not escalate it such that a crisis is reached that may fuel other European parties to take similar measures.