Top foreign policy officials in both the Obama and Biden administrations were part of an Iranian influence operation aimed at bolstering the global pariah’s image as it negotiated a nuclear deal with the United States, according to internal Iranian government emails obtained by Semafor.
The Iranian government decided to build a network of influential overseas academics that would work to bolster the theocratic regime’s image on the world stage, particularly surrounding its negotiations with the west over its nuclear program. Members of that network, which came to be known as the Iran Experts Initiative, were in close contact with the Iranians on messaging strategy — and they were also working in top levels of the United States government.
At least three individuals in the Iran Experts Initiative were working for Rob Malley, who was President Joe Biden’s Special Envoy to Iran until he was forced to step down after his security clearance was revoked. Two of Malley’s top aides, Ali Vaez and Adnan Tabatabai, were in regular contact with Iranian officials and appear to profess their loyalty to Iran in emails.
Ali Vaez, a top Malley advisor who represented the United States in several high-level meetings with Iranian officials, told Iran he was willing to help “in any way” he could.
“As an Iranian, based on my national and patriotic duty, I have not hesitated to help you in any way; from proposing to Your Excellency a public campaign against the notion of [nuclear] breakout, to assisting your team in preparing reports on practical needs of Iran,” Vaez wrote in an email to Javad Zarif, Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Tabatabai, who currently works for the Pentagon in a position that requires a security clearance, similarly stated that Iran was “our country.”
“As you will have noticed, we are all very much willing to dedicate our capacities and resources to jointly working on the improvement of Iran’s foreign relations,” Tabatabai wrote to Zarif. “Iran is our country, so we, too, feel the need and responsibility to contribute our share.”
The ability of Iran to place loyalists in the top echelons of the U.S. government “should be the scandal of a generation.”
“This should be the scandal of a generation: the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism appears to have co-opted senior officials of the last two democratic administrations, with the purpose and achieved goal of influencing our foreign policy,” said Morgan Ortagus, a former State Department official.
Malley lost his security clearance over “serious security concerns” about his handling of sensitive information, personal conduct, and use of classified networks, according to State Department reporter Adam Kredo.
The Biden administration earlier this month handed Iran another major foreign policy win by transferring $6 billion to Iran in exchange for wrongfully detained American prisoners.
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