The ex-official for the Islamic Republic of Iran, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, who is a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at the university, is under pressure on many fronts from congressional representatives, Princeton students and experts on antisemitism.
“Mousavian is closely linked to the Iranian regime and to the regime’s campaigns of terrorism and murder. His presence at Princeton makes students feel justifiably afraid for their safety. Princeton’s decision to keep employing him shows they care less about their students, and more about providing a platform for pro-regime and anti-American propaganda. That kind of reckless institutional ideological bias is exactly why the Donald Trump administration is reassessing federal funding for Princeton,” Cruz told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement.
Fox News Digital previously reported that Mousavian expressed support for Hamas and Hezbollah, and appeared to pay tribute to the Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020 when he attended his funeral.
Mousavian has declined to renounce his support for Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s fatwa (religious decree) to assassinate the British-American writer Salman Rushdie.
Maximillian Meyer, president of Princeton Tigers for Israel, and an undergraduate at the university, told Fox News Digital, “I commend Sen. Cruz for raising urgent concerns about Princeton’s employment of Mousavian, whose career has been defined by shilling for the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. Credible reports linking Mousavian to the oversight of Iranian dissident assassinations in Europe – alongside his endorsement of the fatwa on Salman Rushdie – are deeply alarming.”
Fox News Digital first reported in November 2023 that the House Committee on Education and the Workforce launched an investigation into Mousavian’s role in advancing the interests of Tehran.
During Mousavian’s tenure as Iran’s ambassador to Germany, he was in charge of the embassy that a German court found “served as the ‘headquarters’ for the planning of the 1992 assassination of four Iranian dissidents at the Greek restaurant Mykonos in Berlin.”
However, the former Iranian envoy previously told Fox News Digital that “This accusation is a big lie,” and “The 398-page verdict is published, and everyone can have access to it. The Berlin court verdict does not contain any direct or indirect allegations against me. German authorities never forced me to leave the country.… I have been a frequent visitor to Germany.”
