The Albanian parliament. Photo: Albanian parliament.

In a vote backed by ruling Socialist Party MPs, Albania’s parliament on Tuesday adopted a resolution declaring Iran a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’ – a move aimed at signalling support for the Trump administration’s war.

Speaker Niko Peleshi called the plenary session on Tuesday, outside parliament’s normal calendar, to vote on the resolution, which opposition Democratic Party MPs boycotted, deeming the procedure “illegal”.

“The Democratic Party Parliamentary Group has decided not to participate in … an illegal session called in open violation of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly, outside its normal day [of working],” the head of the opposition parliamentary group, Gazment Bardhi, said on Monday.

“This is not a normal parliamentary session but a gathering called for the personal agenda of the Prime Minister [Edi Rama] and head of the parliament,” he added.

The head of the Socialist parliamentary group, Taulant Balla, presenting the resolution on Tuesday, said he regretted that the opposition was not present to vote on “Albania taking an urgent stance alongside the US, the EU and many other countries… alongside Britain too”.

The resolution says the declaration of Iran as a terrorist state is based on data about the Islamic republic “financing, training, arming and directing non-state armed groups and organisations declared as terrorist entities in several regions”, as well as destabilising actions in the Middle East.

There have been years of tensions between Albania and Iran, and the two countries do not have diplomatic relations.

Albania has been the target of repeated Iranian-backed cyberattacks – probably linked to the fact that it hosts more than 2,000 exiled Iranian dissidents from the Mujahedin-e-Khalq [People’s Mujahedin of Iran] group.

The latest cyberattack by an Iran-linked group that calls itself Homeland Justice recently hit the digital infrastructure of parliament.

It was the third major attack by the Homeland Justice group, following one that targeted the e-Albania public services portal in 2022 and a second on the digital infrastructure of Tirana Municipality in June 2025.

In 2022, Albania declared Iranian diplomats personae non grata over the massive cyberattack on government’s key servers that year.