Washington announces "additional measures" against Tehran

Albania cuts ties with Iran after cyber attack

Police officers stand in front of the Iranian embassy in the Albanian capital Tirana.

Reuters

Albania yesterday cut diplomatic ties with Iran and ordered Iranian diplomats and embassy staff to leave within 24 hours, saying an investigation had concluded that Iran was behind a cyber attack that targeted the country in July, while the White House announced that the United States would take “additional measures to hold Iran accountable.” Against the background of the cyber attack against Albania, an ally of Washington within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

"The government has immediately decided to cut diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran," Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said in a video statement sent to the media.

He added, "This stern response is perfectly proportional to the gravity and gravity of the electronic attack, which threatened to paralyze public services, erase digital systems, breach state records, steal internal government electronic correspondence, and create chaos and lawlessness in the country."

In the same vein, the United States also said that after weeks of investigation it concluded that Iran was behind the "reckless and irresponsible" cyber attack on July 15, and said it would support its NATO ally.

The US National Security Council said in a statement, "The United States will take further measures to hold Iran accountable for actions that threaten the security of an ally of the United States and set a worrying precedent in cyberspace."

Relations between the two countries have been tense since 2014, when Albania welcomed some 3,000 members of the Iranian opposition, the People's Mojahedin Organization, who settled in a camp near Durres, the country's main port.

Albania had previously announced that it had thwarted a number of attacks planned by Iranian agents against the opposition organization.

Rama said, "The detailed investigation provided us with irrefutable evidence that the cyber attack against our country was orchestrated and sponsored by the Islamic Republic of Iran, with the help of four groups, that carried out the attack."

The White House said the US government has been working on the ground for weeks, with private sector partners, to investigate and help Albania recover from the attack that destroyed government data and disrupted public services.

"We have concluded that the Iranian government carried out this reckless and irresponsible cyber attack and is responsible for subsequent hacking and leaking operations," he added.

The United States called the attack unprecedented, saying it violated peacetime standards of not harming critical infrastructure on which the public depends.

On the other hand, a quarterly report issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency of the United Nations yesterday showed that Iran's stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 60%, close to the degree needed for making nuclear weapons, has increased to a level that is more than enough, in the event of Increase its enrichment, to make a nuclear bomb.

The agency’s report to member states stated that the agency’s estimates indicate that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium by up to 60%, which Iran maintains in the form of uranium hexafluoride, the gas that is enriched in centrifuges, grew by 12.5 kilograms to 55.6 kilograms, Since the last quarterly report issued on May 30.

At the same time, as in previous chapters, the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a second report, in which it said that Iran had not yet provided definitive answers about the origin of the uranium particles found at three undeclared sites, which mainly appear to be old and are being investigated by the Agency Since years.

The second report said: "The Director-General is increasingly concerned that Iran has not communicated with the Agency on outstanding safeguards issues (of undeclared sites) during the reporting period and, therefore, no progress has been made toward resolving them."

 Atomic Energy Agency: Iran's stockpile of weapons-grade uranium has increased

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