EXCLUSIVE – Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz referred to as on his alma mater, Princeton College, to dismiss a former high-level Iranian regime official as a result of he’s allegedly making college students really feel unsafe amid latest outbreaks of antisemitism on the New Jersey college.
The ex-official for the Islamic Republic of Iran, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, who’s a Center East safety and nuclear coverage specialist on the college, is underneath stress on many fronts from congressional representatives, Princeton college students and specialists on antisemitism.
“Mousavian is intently linked to the Iranian regime and to the regime’s campaigns of terrorism and homicide. His presence at Princeton makes college students really feel justifiably afraid for his or her security. Princeton’s determination to maintain using him reveals they care much less about their college students, and extra about offering a platform for pro-regime and anti-American propaganda. That type of reckless institutional ideological bias is precisely why the Trump administration is reassessing federal funding for Princeton,” Cruz advised Fox Information Digital in an unique assertion.
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College students, some school and outsiders gathered on the lawns exterior the Princeton chapel to protest Israel’s army marketing campaign in Gaza, April 25, 2024. (Mary Ann Koruth / Imagn)
Fox Information Digital beforehand reported that Mousavian expressed help for the U.S.-designated terrorist actions, Hamas and Hezbollah, and appeared to pay tribute to the worldwide Iranian terrorist Qassem Soleimani in 2020 when he attended his funeral.
President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike to get rid of Soleimani in January 2020 for his position within the murders of over 600 American army personnel within the Center East and his planning of latest terrorist assaults.
Mousavian has declined to resign his help for Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s fatwa (non secular decree) to assassinate the British-American writer Salman Rushdie.
A Hezbollah flag was on show throughout a Princeton scholar protest encampment in opposition to Israel final yr. The Iran-backed Hezbollah was chargeable for a 1983 bombing that murdered 241 U.S. military members in Beirut.
Maximillian Meyer, president of Princeton Tigers for Israel, and an undergraduate on the college, advised Fox Information Digital, “I commend Sen. Cruz for elevating pressing issues about Princeton’s employment of Mousavian, whose profession has been outlined by shilling for the world’s main state sponsor of terrorism. Credible stories linking Mousavian to the oversight of Iranian dissident assassinations in Europe – alongside his endorsement of the fatwa on Salman Rushdie – are deeply alarming.”
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Seyed Hossein Mousavian, , who was then head of the Iranian delegation, speaks to journalists on the Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company, Nov. 29, 2004 in Vienna. Mousavian is presently a Center East safety and nuclear coverage specialist at Princeton. (Robert Newald/AFP through Getty Photographs)
Fox Information Digital first reported in November 2023 that the Home Committee on Schooling and the Workforce launched an investigation into Mousavian’s position in advancing the pursuits of the clerical regime in Tehran.
Throughout Mousavian’s tenure as Iran’s ambassador to Germany, he was answerable for the embassy {that a} German court docket discovered “served because the ‘headquarters’ for the planning of the 1992 assassination of 4 Iranian dissidents on the Greek restaurant Mykonos in Berlin.”
Nevertheless, the previous Iranian ambassador beforehand advised Fox Information Digital that “This accusation is an enormous lie,” and “The 398-page verdict is revealed, and everybody can have entry to it. The Berlin court docket verdict doesn’t comprise any direct or oblique allegations in opposition to me. German authorities by no means pressured me to go away the nation.… I’ve been a frequent customer to Germany.”
But, Iranian dissidents and human rights specialists uncovered testimony from Abolghasem Mesbahi, a former senior-level Iranian intelligence official, who told the Berlin court throughout the Mykonos trial, “Mousavian participated in a lot of the [Iranian regime’s] crimes that occurred in Europe.”
Mousavian didn’t reply to a number of Fox Information Digital press queries, WhatsApp messages and phone requires this text.
Sen. Ted Cruz talks with reporters. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name, Inc through Getty Photographs)
Meyer, the Princeton undergraduate scholar, mentioned, “Anybody who has served in senior roles for the repressive Islamic Republic of Iran poses a transparent menace to American nationwide safety. His continued employment at Princeton is a damning indictment of the anti-Americanism festering inside so-called ‘elite’ establishments.”
Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber, who just lately mentioned he would defy Trump’s efforts to cease antisemitism through federal funding cuts to the rich college, didn’t reply to Fox Information Digital e mail press queries and phone calls about Mousavian.
Fox Information Digital just lately reported that pro-Hamas and pro-Palestinian agitators stormed a chat by former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at Princeton, sparking criticism from Jewish students at Princeton.
In a press release to Fox Information Digital over the incident, Eisgruber mentioned he was “appalled” at stories of antisemitic language used throughout Bennett’s go to. He added, “Such conduct is reprehensible and insupportable. The College is investigating and can pursue disciplinary measures as applicable, to the extent any members of the Princeton College group are implicated.”
Christopher Eisgruber, president of Princeton College, throughout an interview in New York, on Oct 11, 2023. (Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg/Getty Photographs)
It’s unclear if Eisgruber suspended or expelled college students who prevented Bennett from talking. Mousavian has confronted criticism for stoking antisemitism since Hamas invaded Israel and slaughtered over 1,200 folks, together with greater than 40 People. Eisgruber has gone silent about Mousavian’s actions.
A Fox Information Digital examination of Mousavian’s X account reveals a excessive variety of Persian and English posts attacking the Jewish state, together with evaluating Israel with Nazi Germany. The comparability between Israel and Nazi Germany is assessed as trendy antisemitism, in accordance with the broadly accepted definition formulated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
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Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the previous chair of the U.S. Fee on Worldwide Non secular Freedom and director of World Social Motion on the Simon Wiesenthal Middle, requested Eisgruber in a press release to Fox Information Digital: Why does the college proceed to guard Mousavian at a time of raging antisemitism and what’s he nonetheless doing there?
Cooper additional requested, within the context of the reported antisemitic mob assault on Bennett and Mousavian’s alleged ties to the murders carried out by Iran’s regime, why can’t “the President of Princeton join the dots”?
Anti-Israel protesters at Princeton disrupt a speech by former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. (Max Meyer/X)
Cooper mentioned on Eisgruber’s watch “It’s a shameful chapter that should finish the fitting means.” Cooper accused Eisgruber of “stoic silence or indifference to antisemitism” and “stonewalling” efforts to carry Mousavian accountable for his alleged crimes and antisemitism. Cooper continued that Eisgruber owes it to Jewish college students and school, Iranian-People, and Iranian dissidents to reply primary questions on Mousavian.
Eisgruber has not obstructed any regulation enforcement efforts to research Mousavian’s alleged crimes.
Cooper additionally referred to as on Princeton and Mousavian to submit his Ph.D. for examination. Fox Information Digital has realized that neither Princeton College nor the College of Kent in the UK, the place Mousavian allegedly obtained his Ph.D. in 2002, have been keen to provide a replica of his dissertation.
Mousavian was the top of the Overseas Relations Committee of Iran’s Nationwide Safety Council (1997-2005), in accordance with his Princeton webpage.
An aerial shot of anti-Israel protesters at Princeton. (WTXF)
Gary Hughes, a spokesman for the College of Kent, advised Fox Information Digital, “Knowledge safety precept additionally signifies that neither myself nor every other colleague throughout the College can disclose private knowledge about this or every other present or former scholar.”
He mentioned the college’s Freedom of Info (FOI) workplace can reply the request. The FOI workplace denied a request and later mentioned after Fox Information Digital appealed that, “We’re presently conducting an inner assessment in relation to your request.”
A British-Iranian man sought to acquire Mousavian’s Ph.D. in January, in accordance with e mail correspondence obtained by Fox Information Digital. Kent College’s Open Analysis staff wrote in a single e mail, “I’m afraid now we have no file of Mr. Seyed Hossein Mousavian’s thesis within the library catalogue.” Fox Information Digital searches for Mousavian’s Ph.D. in American, British and German tutorial databases confirmed no outcomes.
The Swedish-Iranian creator Iraj Mesdaghi advised Fox Information Digital that he sought to acquire Mousavian’s Ph.D. in 2013. The College of Kent declined to provide it. Mesdaghi wrote in regards to the nice lengths he went to so as to safe entry to Mousavian’s alleged Ph.D. on his web site, together with contact with the FOI workplace.
Shirley M. Tilghman, the previous president of Princeton College when Mousavian was employed in 2009, declined to reply a press question about whether or not she vetted Mousavian and his alleged Ph.D.
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Fox Information Digital press queries relating to Cruz’s remark to the Division of Schooling, the U.S. State Division and Leo Terrell, who heads the Trump administration’s job power on antisemitism, weren’t instantly answered.
Fox Information Digital reporter Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
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