Bahram Ghasemi, the spokesperson for the foreign ministry of the Islamic Republic said that the expulsion of the two diplomats from Albania was done “under pressures from the U.S and Israel’s security service” and “anti-Iranian terrorist groups”.

According to IRNA, while condemning Albania’s actions, Ghasemi said that the accusations against the two diplomats are untrue and baseless, and only made to undermine the relation between Iran and Europe.

Yesterday, Albania expelled two Iranian diplomats, including ambassador Gholam Hossein Mohammadnia, for their connections to a terrorist plot in 2016. Mohammadnia has also been a member of Iran’s nuclear deal negotiation team.

Albania is host to almost two thousand MKO members ever since their bases in Iraq were shut down.

In recent months, several Islamic Republic diplomats have been arrested in different European countries for their roles in terrorist plots. In July, Belgium announced that they have arrested an Iranian diplomat in connection to the bombing plot of MKO rally. In the same month, Netherlands expelled two Iranian diplomats, and in October, France also expelled an Iranian diplomat for the same terrorist plot in Belgium.