Protests have been growing in Albania against a planned resort development backed by Jared Kushner, with thousands taking to the streets of Tirana on Thursday. But now they have sparkled more than just the political and invironmental debate. This has turned into a high stakes diplomatic standoff between Albania and Iran. As thousands of people take to the streets to protest these projects, backed by Jared Kushner's company, Prime minister Edi Rama declares that part of the online campaign and narrative fueling these protests is actually a hybrid war against Albania. The Prime minister is linking this campaign to actors and specifically pointed to Iran, a country Albania has had a deep diplomatic dispute for years following major cyber attacks against Albania's state institutions. Bu Tirana's accusations were immediately countered by Tehran. The spokes person of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmaeil Baqaei, rejected the statements of the Albanian Prime minister, charachterizing them as baseless. In his public reaction Baqaei mocked the accusations of a hybrid war and asked Rama to respect the judgment of the Albanian citizens, arguing that the protests are the results of an internal grievance and not Iranian influence.