OPINION:
Iran has been on the receiving end of sweetheart deals from the United States. Most recently, the return of $6 billion in frozen funds was effectively ransom paid to recover Americans held hostage by the Islamic Regime, raising questions about who in the administration is really running the show.
One possibility nestled in the Pentagon is a high-level Defense Department official who appears to be involved with an influence operation called the Iran Experts Initiative, or IEI. It is unclear whether the connection confers status as an expert on Iran or an expert for Iran.
The online publication Semafor last week identified the Pentagon official as Ariane Tabatabai, chief of staff for Chris Maier, assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. Born in Iran, the daughter of a University of Tehran philosophy professor, Ms. Tabatabai has held positions as think tank researcher and university professor in the United States. She has also served as a member of the Biden administration’s Iran nuclear deal negotiation team.
Ms. Tabatabai’s alleged dealings with the IEI, an influence operation connected to Iran’s extremist government, have raised suspicion over which nation holds her loyalty. Official Iranian government communications shared with Semafor, if genuine, are truly troubling. They include messages in which Ms. Tabatabai “checked in” with Mostafa Zahrani, an IEI organizer in Tehran connected to the Foreign Ministry.
In a 2014 email exchange, years before gaining her Pentagon post, Ms. Tabatabai reportedly asked Mr. Zahrani’s advice about accepting working invitations to Israel and to Saudi Arabia. At his recommendation, she declined the Israel trip and accepted the Saudi visit. In a second message, she gave her IEI contact a heads-up about an upcoming appearance before the U.S. Congress where she would deliver testimony regarding the Iran nuclear deal.
In addition, according to Semafor, Ms. Tabatabai sent Mr. Zahrani a link to an opinion piece that appeared in The Boston Globe in which she echoed Foreign Ministry policy defending Iran’s need for nuclear power and discounting the likelihood the regime would violate a religious edict against building nuclear weapons.
In other emails in the cache, her IEI contact reported this and other opinion-shaping successes to his Foreign Ministry overseers.
To be sure, influence is the stock-in-trade of every nation’s diplomacy corps, and the long-running U.S.-Iran tug of war is best carried out with words rather than weapons. Americans simply need to know which side Ms. Tabatabai is pulling for.
The same applies to her former colleague Robert Malley in President Biden’s campaign to revive the Iran nuclear deal that was orchestrated by President Barack Obama in 2015 and terminated by President Donald Trump in 2018. In June, Mr. Malley was placed on leave from his post as special envoy to Iran.
News reports assert that the FBI is investigating him for possible mishandling of classified material in his communications with Iranian counterparts. The State Department has maintained a stony silence regarding a potential security breach favoring Iran.
U.S. flexibility in the face of Iranian obstinacy seems to originate in the White House, where Mr. Biden has mirrored Mr. Obama’s penchant for placating Iran. It’s hardly surprising, then, that Mr. Biden’s foreign policy officials are following his lead with activities that appear to reward Tehran.
Americans have a right to know whether the Biden administration’s Iran experts are acting in U.S. interests or are tools in Iran’s influence operation.
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