Iran cheers Albania's raid on exiled MEK group, wants more
Tehran expressed satisfaction with the Albanian government's surprise crackdown on the largest exiled Iranian opposition organization, which has been engaged in violence against the Islamic Republic for over four decades.
TEHRAN — Iranian officials have in the past week have cheered an Albanian police raid on the dissident Iranian group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK).
In the chaotic raid in a Tirana suburb last Tuesday, the MEK said that at least one of its members had died while scores more were injured after inhaling pepper spray. It slammed the police raid as a "criminal onslaught."
The Albanian Interior Ministry, however, said that the group had violated the humanitarian terms under which it had been granted asylum in 2014.
"We hope the Albanian government will take the practical and responsible step against the group of the hypocrites," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said at a news conference on Monday, repeating a pejorative term that Iranian authorities commonly use to discredit the group rather than the actual title.
