Official Tehran reacted today (June 8) for the first time following Prime Minister Edi Rama’s accusations that Iran is conducting a hybrid warfare campaign against Albania and has connections to the protests being held by Albanian citizens against the construction of a resort in Zvërnec.
The response came from the spokesperson of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmail Baghaei, who described Rama’s accusations as “ridiculous.”
The Prime Minister responded to Tehran with another statement posted on the social media platform X.
Among other things, Rama emphasized that the Albanian people cannot be deceived, regardless of how many cyberattacks Iran may carry out. He wrote that Albanians have protected both Iranians and Jews throughout history and will continue to do so, while stressing that Albania will never apologize to Tehran.
“The Iranian people deserve freedom. They deserve dignity. They deserve the right to speak without fear. And Albania will never apologize, never retreat, and never be intimidated for standing on the side of these values. So go on manipulating and deceiving anyone in the colorful West who is willing to fall for your lies. But you will never turn Albanians into enemies of any people—whether Jews, Arabs, or Americans,” the Prime Minister wrote, among other remarks.
Rama accused Iran of being behind the protests in Zvërnec against the project and of carrying out attacks linked to Israel.
Edi Rama’s Full Post on X
“Really? So now you suddenly care about the Albanian people?
The same Albanian people whose institutions, public services, and digital infrastructure were targeted by a cyberterror campaign designed to paralyze an entire country—a campaign that international investigations traced back to actors linked to and supported by your regime.
We know those fingerprints very well. We know the methods. We know the threats. And we know that what has fueled your hostility toward Albania has never been Zionism, nor any other convenient slogan of your disgusting propaganda.
It is your hostility toward freedom itself.
You cannot forgive Albania for doing what Albanians do: opening its doors to people fleeing persecution. You cannot forgive Albania for providing refuge to Iranian men and women whom you sought to silence through intimidation, imprisonment, and death simply because they dared to think differently, speak differently, or dream differently.
But we are Albanians.
We do not abandon people who knock on our door seeking protection from oppression. We did not do so when Jews fleeing Nazi persecution needed shelter. We became the only country in Europe with more Jews after the Second World War than before it. And we will not fail Iranians seeking safety from intimidation, persecution, or murder.
Nor will we submit to your desperate and relentless cyberattacks. After your major attack, we built a resilient, state-of-the-art cyber defense shield that has made Albania much stronger and far better prepared to withstand your continuing cyber offensives, which now fail to achieve their objectives.
You are free to exploit the privileges of open societies to spread your false narratives, shameless accusations, and brutal threats. But as we Albanians learned from fifty years of darkness under our own atheocratic dictatorship, propaganda may conceal the truth, distort the truth, and delay the truth, but it can never bury the truth beneath the weight of a medieval theocracy such as yours.
Your regime may hack networks, imprison critics, censor voices, threaten opponents, harass neighbors, and invent endless excuses for its failures. But it cannot escape reality forever.
Regimes built on fear, censorship, oppression, and the suppression of dissent may endure for a time, but history is merciless toward those who wage war against the freedom and prosperity of their own people.
The Iranian people deserve freedom. They deserve dignity. They deserve the right to speak without fear.
And Albania will never apologize, never retreat, and never be intimidated for standing on the side of these values.
So continue manipulating and deceiving anyone in the colorful West who is willing to fall for your lies. But you will never make Albanians enemies of other peoples—whether Jews, Arabs, or Americans.
Because what they share, and what you fear, are precisely the things you have denied your own nation for far too long: great hopes, great dreams, and the determination to live freely.
To seek peace and to tirelessly build prosperity.”
