Albania Backs Israel, Compares Iranian Chief to Hitler

Albania’s leader has compared Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to Hitler, once again showing that the Jewish state has a firm ally in Sali Berisha.Reacting to Ahmadinejad’s recent declaration, branding Israel as a tumour in the Middle East that should be eradicated, Sali Berisha on Sunday described the Iranian’s president’s stance as identical to Hitler’s.“With such a statement Ahmadinjead proves that he and his ideology are a growing threat to peace and stability in the Middle East,” Berisha said.

“Ahmadinejad’s Nazi declarations should be a wake-up call that Iran’s nuclear program should be stopped by any means, as the greatest threat to peace and stability in the world,” he added.

Albania and Israel have intensified their bilateral relations in the last two years, which culminated with the opening of an Israeli embassy in Tirana on August 2.

Speaking at the inauguration of the embassy, Berisha said that Israel’s neighbours used anti-Semitism to reinforce their own repressive regimes.

In a speech at the Israeli Council on Foreign Relations in Tel Aviv in November 2011, Berisha’s suggested Albania’s relationship with Israel could be a model for other Muslim countries.