The Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, arrived today (Sunday) for an official visit to Israel at the invitation of the Prime Minister, Yair Lapid. The visit was held after last month Albania announced the severance of relations with Iran, following an attempt at an extensive cyber attack on the country.
Albania is a Muslim country, and in recent years it has hosted thousands of Iranian exiles who oppose the regime, most of them from the "Aron Mujahideen" organization.
The Iranian attack apparently came as revenge for giving shelter to opposition activists.
Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama (archive), photo: GettyImages
Rama speaks at the United Nations (archive), photo: AFP
"The cyber attack threatened to paralyze the service to the public, delete digital systems and break into the state archive while stealing electronic information, with the aim of causing chaos throughout Albania," Rama charged when he announced the severance of relations with Tehran and the removal of the Iranian diplomatic delegation from Tirana.
According to him, "an in-depth investigation proved that the attack against our country was planned and carried out by the Islamic Republic using four terrorist squads."
During his visit to Israel, Rama is accompanied by Israel's ambassador to Albania, Galit Peleg, and he is expected to meet, among others, with the Prime Minister, the President of the State, the Speaker of the Knesset, and the Minister of Finance. Along with Rama, the head of Albania's cyber system and the national security adviser also arrived in Israel.
In addition, Rama and the members of the Albanian delegation will meet with the chairman of the opposition, Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as with the heads of Israeli companies in the cyber field.
Rama with Netanyahu (archive), photo: Kobi Gideon/Leam
First conference of its kind
Another topic that will come up during Rama's visit is the promotion of the existence of a first conference of its kind in Israel with the participation of prime ministers from the Balkan countries, in order to strengthen their ties with Israel in the fields of energy, agriculture, cyber and more.
Sources privy to the details of the visit said that the person who worked behind the scenes to organize it was the Israeli businessman of Kazakh origin, Alexander Maskevitz, who is a close friend of the Prime Minister of Albania.
Maskavits heads the ERG Group, one of the world's largest producers of a variety of metals.
Alexander Maskevitz (archive).
Standing behind the conference, photo: Koko
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