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"Rama blames Iran for protests against Kushner's luxury resort" - Financial Times article on the protests in Tirana

2026-06-19 17:39:58Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

"Rama blames Iran for protests against Kushner's luxury resort" -

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has strongly defended the controversial $4 billion luxury resort project planned by Donald Trump's son-in-law, claiming that Iranian hackers are behind the weeks of angry anti-government protests the project has sparked.

The plan, supported by Jared Kushner and the US president's daughter, Ivanka, envisages the construction of a luxury resort on Sazan, Albania's only island, as well as the development of a coastal area near a protected bird reserve, known as a flamingo habitat.

Speaking at a conference in Rome on Thursday, Rama confirmed that coastal land for the project has been purchased by investors and that an environmental impact assessment is being carried out, although he said the project has not yet been approved. The island itself remains public property.

“There is nothing that should worry any environmentalist,” he said.

“The birds, the water, the trees and everything else will be much better than today. The project aims to have a net positive impact: 25 percent more greenery than there is today.”

Rama said much of the public anger over the project, which is backed by Affinity Partners, the investment firm founded by Kushner, was fueled and amplified by hackers from Tehran. Tehran has long criticized Albania for harboring thousands of members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, an exiled Iranian opposition movement.

“We have only one enemy, which is the republic of Iran and Khomeini,” Rama said, adding that Tehran has carried out “a ruthless cyberattack against Albania” over the past three years and has now “entered the game” in the protests against the resort.

Rama insisted that residents of the city closest to the planned resort broadly support the project and are "looking forward to it," while claiming that most critics and protesters are foreigners who hate Trump.

“Most Albanians love the project,” he said.

“The digital anger has certainly been fueled mainly because of Kushner and Trump,” Rama said, claiming that the mere involvement of the US president’s family has been enough to bring “many people from different walks of life and from many continents who simply jump on the attack.”

The protests first began a few weeks ago, after the developer cordoned off the coastal area opposite the island, which Ivanka has said she "discovered" during a sailing trip in the Mediterranean with her husband.

The movement has since escalated into one of the largest in the country in decades. Protesters, who bring plastic flamingos to marches and have called for Rama's resignation, have portrayed the project as a symbol of broader government corruption.

“Never in Albania has a government tried to impose something on people in this way,” said Petrit Hoxha, an engineering student from northern Albania who was in Tirana to participate in the protests.

"We don't want the Americans to take advantage of us. We want them as partners, but this doesn't seem like a partnership to me at all."

Rama claimed that the scale of the protests has been deliberately exaggerated through the circulation of videos from protests held in other countries around the world, falsely presented as scenes from the streets of Albania.

Kushner first conceived of the project in 2021, when he was on a yacht trip in the Mediterranean and met Rama for the first time, as the prime minister previously told the FT.

Albania, still one of Europe's poorest countries, has in recent years increasingly relied on tourism as part of its economy. Last year, Albania hosted around 12 million foreign tourists, many of them from Italy, in search of cheaper holidays in the Mediterranean.

The environmental damage along the coastline has angered local residents, who say the government should focus on improving public services and infrastructure, rather than accommodating wealthy foreigners.

The European Parliament warned Tirana on Wednesday that it must respect environmental standards as the country seeks to join the bloc.

“The EU enlargement process must go hand in hand with continued progress on strong environmental guarantees, the rule of law, the fight against corruption and transparency,” said Green MEP Tineke Strik.

A group of MEPs will also travel to Albania later this month to assess the situation on the ground, they added.

Financial Times 


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