Albania's Prime Minister stresses Iran's nuclear rights

Synoeca ^

[Alex Marko]

Tehran, Oct 28, 2005 - In a move certainly to agitate its US and EU allies, Albania’s Prime Minister Sali Berisha on Thursday stressed that Iran is entitled to peaceful nuclear activities.

In a meeting with Iran's Ambassador to Albania, the Prime Minister praised Iran's "transparent" nuclear stances and its “peaceful nuclear activities”, saying that Tehran's approach towards the issue was consistent with all the international norms and regulations reported by Tehran’s state media source IRNA.

Berisha’s move to support Iran is the latest in provocations against the United States by the newly elected government. Opposition parties in Albania have had a difficult time with implementing reforms on organized crime, terrorism and financial institutions.

[Alex Marko]

Good old Berisha up to his old pro-muslim ways.

[ncountylee]

One Muslim supporting another Muslim.

[happyathome]

Actually I think this represents a major shift in Albanian thinking. I had thought that the Albanian government supported us - didn't they actually send a reinforced company for coalition duty in Iraq? I thought Berisha was on our side. This is disappointing.

[Alex Marko]

Berisha is a muslim pig, he was JUST elected into power in July, the former government in power was very proUS

[eleni121]

Don't be deceived. No Albanian Muslims is pro US. They pretend to be pro anything until they get power.

[happyathome]

This is Berisha's second go around, right?. He had power at some point (late 90's) as well and was not an Islamist at that point.

[GeraldP]

The Iranian report was denounced in forceful terms by the Albanian government, forcing them to retract the report that is the centerpiece of this thread. The office of the prime minister (Berisha) released the text of the message Berisha gave to Iran as being (translated by yours truly):

"Albania desires that Iran, in agreement with international treaties it is party to, be completely open and transparent in the field of nuclear energy utilization".

Subsequent to the denial, the prime minister issued another declaration in the severest of tones denouncing the Iranian's President remark on "wiping Israel from the map"

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The Albanian press was up in arms today about this. Noone in Albania wants anything to do with Iran and their Islamist government. If the US were to send troops in Iran tomorrow, I guarantee that there would be an Albanian contingent alongside the American troops, just as was the case for Iraq.

My interpretation, and the interpretation of the Albanian press, is that this was a bs report where the Islamic dictatorship's propaganda machine thought they could get away with putting a spin on a quite routine diplomatic statement. They forgot that Albania is one of the staunchest US backers. Any move by Berisha to change this stance would land him in deeper shiite than he was in 1997 (I wish the bastard would have left politics then)

http://www.irna.ir/index.php?lang=en&option=com_newssearch&task=search&searchtext=albania&sLines=0&x=0&y=0&i_titles=checked&i_texts=checked
The preceding link shows the updated IRNA release on the meeting.IRNA basically retracted their earlier report.

[Brofholdonow]

The Iranian check is in the mail.

[mark502inf]

See post 7. The original post is Iranian propaganda which has been denounced by Albania and has now been retracted.

Albania is a staunch American ally. It was one of the first countries to send troops to Iraq and just sent another contingent a couple weeks ago.

[montyspython]

Everyone hold on to your valuables, the spin cycle starts now.