AP Interview: Albania's leader defends Kushner-linked luxury development

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama is vowing to press ahead with a luxury development linked to U.S. President Donald Trump ’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, despite a surge in protests against it there.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Rama dismissed environmental objections as the result of misinformation and said the development was turning Albania from a country once ignored by investors into one “where the big capital wants to come and the big investors want to come."

The government says the development would be transformational for the former communist nation as it seeks to enter the high-end tourism market and pushes for European Union membership.

But thousands of demonstrators have joined daily protests outside Rama's office in the capital, Tirana — including on Tuesday — against the planned project that includes hotels, apartments, villas and a marina for yachts.

The prime minister said a formal environmental impact assessment has not started, even though work has begun to clear land inside a nature reserve.

Asked if he might step back from the project, Rama refused, adding, “Step back from what?”

Albania’s anti-corruption agency has opened an investigation related to the project. The government says the land is privately owned, but rival claims over its privatization have emerged.

Rama said Kushner’s proposal began by chance. He recalled a dinner in southern Albania with Kushner, his wife, Ivanka Trump, and friends who had stopped in the port of Durres to refuel their boat on the way to Montenegro.

Months later, Kushner approached him at a gathering of world leaders and business executives in Davos, Switzerland, and expressed interest in investing in Albania, Rama said.

“Your country’s absolutely stunning, and we would like to look for a chance to invest,” Rama recalled Kushner telling him.

An investment firm linked to Kushner has been granted special investor status by Albanian authorities.

The luxury project has two components: a coastal development in the Narta Lagoon area, which is a wildlife reserve, and a smaller resort on the nearby uninhabited island of Sazan, a communist-era military base.

Work has already begun to clear land inside a nature reserve used by migratory birds, prompting environmental groups to warn of the destruction of long-preserved habitats. Albania has 450 kilometers (280 miles) of coast that remained largely underdeveloped during decades of harsh communist rule.

Rama said a formal environmental impact assessment has not started because the plan for the development has not been finalized. He said international architects and environmental specialists are still shaping the proposal.

“When it comes to the environment, there is no project yet, there is no environmental impact assessment yet, because this is still a planning process,” he said.

He argued that Albania has a strong conservation record, pointing to bans on hunting and logging that he said helped flamingo populations recover.

“We have fantastic documentation of how the wildlife in Albania came back thanks to the 10 years moratorium of hunting,” Rama said.

Since late May, excavators and other heavy machinery have entered the planned development area, opening access routes, digging into the sand, clearing land among pine trees and installing fencing.

The prime minister suggested that some of the backlash to the project was being amplified by outside interference, citing what he described as a long-running Iranian cyber campaign against Albania.

Albania has long accused Iran of backing hackers who attack the country’s cyber infrastructure, after Albania sheltered members of an Iranian opposition group. Tehran has denied the allegations.

“There is a lot of manipulation. There is a lot of half-truths that become bigger and bigger lies by the hour,” he said.

He emphasized that he was not accusing individual protesters of acting as foreign agents.

Protesters take part in a rally in Tirana, Albania, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, against the construction of a massive coastal development project linked to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump at Narta lagoon area, western Albania. (AP Photo/Hameraldi Agolli)

Protesters take part in a rally in Tirana, Albania, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, against the construction of a massive coastal development project linked to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump at Narta lagoon area, western Albania. (AP Photo/Hameraldi Agolli)

Protesters take part in a rally in Tirana, Albania, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, against the construction of a massive coastal development project linked to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump at Narta lagoon area, western Albania. (AP Photo/Hameraldi Agolli)

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama listens to a question during an interview with The Associated Press in Tirana, Albania, Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hameraldi Agolli)

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Tirana, Albania, Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hameraldi Agolli)

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Tirana, Albania, Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hameraldi Agolli)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A U.S. Army Apache attack helicopter crashed near the Strait of Hormuz, with President Donald Trump saying the two crew members on board were “fine” after the incident involving the strategic waterway, which remains under a chokehold by Iran.

What caused the crash remained unclear Tuesday morning in the Middle East, which was still reeling after Iran and Israel exchanged fire the previous day in the biggest blow yet to the straining ceasefire in the Iran war. Iranian state media, relying on foreign reporting, acknowledged the crash without elaborating.

Since the U.S. and Israel began striking Iran on Feb. 28, the war has shaken the global economy, driven up energy prices around the world and made many basics, including food, more expensive. Officials have been unable to turn the April ceasefire into a deal to permanently end the conflict.

Trump, speaking to journalists at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York after watching the NBA Finals on Monday night, acknowledged the crash.

“The pilots are fine. Yeah,” Trump said. “Nobody injured. We are going to issue a report tomorrow. But the pilots are fine.”

The New York Times first reported that a U.S. Army Apache attack helicopter went down near the strait in unclear circumstances. The U.S. military's Central Command and the Defense Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Apache helicopters have been a key asset for the American military as it enforces a blockade on Iranian crude oil shipments and tankers, seeking to pressure Tehran into reaching a deal. The helicopters also have been used by the United Arab Emirates to shoot down Iranian drones during the Iran war.

Trump also expressed renewed optimism over negotiations with Iran.

“We have a good chance” of signing a deal in “two or three days," Trump said. But he didn’t provide any details on why there was reason for new optimism.

“We’re very close to having a very, very good, strong, powerful deal,” the president said. “If we go and bomb — which we could do very easily if we want, and we spend another two or three weeks bombing — they’ll have nothing left whatsoever. But you won’t have the strait open for months.”

He added: “If we do the bombing, you know, a lot of people are going to be killed. Who wants to do that? I don’t.”

Mediators, led predominantly by Pakistan, have been trying for weeks to get a deal across the line. However, both Iran and the U.S. have taken hard-line positions.

The U.S. wants to see Iran give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which is believed still to be entombed in the country after American airstrikes in the 12-day war in 2025. But Iran is refusing that and demanding relief from sanctions. It also wants the release of frozen assets even before a final agreement is in place, something rejected by Trump.

Price reported from New York. Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.

A person stands on shallow water as cargo and commercial vessels are anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, June 8, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic language spokesman, stands beside weapons the army says were seized from Hezbollah in Lebanon, at an army base in northern Israel, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Lebanese security officers gather at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a building in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

President Donald Trump talks with reporters before boarding Air Force One at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, early Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump talks with reporters before boarding Air Force One at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, early Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

A projectile streaks through the sky over central Israel during an Iranian missile attack, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)