Iran opposition summit scrapped after security threat

US officials sound alarm over meeting in Albania where ex-minister Liam Fox was to give a speech

AN IRANIAN opposition summit where Liam Fox had been due to speak was cancelled last night after the US warned of a credible security threat.

The Free Iran World Summit, organised by exiled dissident group Mujahedin-e-khalq (MEK), was to be held over the weekend near Durrës, Albania, but was called off yesterday amid concerns it would be targeted.

The would-be speakers had to be moved to a safe location inside Albania.

The US embassy in Albania had earlier warned its citizens against attending, telling them to “avoid the event, be aware of their surroundings and keep a low profile”. The warning came shortly after the Belgian parliament ratified a prisoner swap treaty with Iran which may result in extradition of Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi, who is sentenced to 20 years in jail for his role in a plot to bomb the 2018 Free Iran World Summit.

Organisers said the decision to postpone was made upon recommendations by the Albanian government “and due to terrorist threats and conspiracies”.

On Monday, Albania reported a cyber attack on its servers that the government called “a synchronised criminal attack from abroad”.

Pro–government media reported that Iran was responsible – sending a political message to the country, which is hosting around 3,000 exiled Iranians in Albania belonging to the MEK.

Dr Fox, the former defence secretary, was to speak alongside Stephen Harper, former prime minister of Canada, Guy Verhofstadt, former prime minister of Belgium, and John Bolton, former US national security adviser.

Dr Fox was to give a speech critical of the Islamic Republic’s rulers and of the “defective” nuclear deal that the Biden administration is trying to revive. “It does not stop Iran from becoming a nuclear state, it merely postpones it,” Dr Fox was expected to say, in comments shared with The Dailytelegraph.

“It does nothing to deal with Iran’s ballistic missile programme, its destabilisation of its geographic neighbours, or its export of terror into other parts of the region and the globe.”

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned in an interview yesterday that Iran’s nuclear programme is “galloping ahead”. In June, Iran began removing essentially all the agency’s monitoring equipment installed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Mr Grossi said at the time that this could deal a “fatal blow” to chances of reviving the deal following 2018’s pullout by the US.

Iran has breached many of the deal’s limits on its nuclear activities since then-president Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement and re-imposed sanctions on Tehran in 2018. It is enriching uranium to close to weapons-grade.