Princeton University sticks with pro-Hamas, pro-Hezbollah, pro-terror professor

The pressure is mounting on Princeton University in New Jersey after Iranian-Americans and students appeared at a demonstration in late April, urging the Ivy League institution’s president to fire academic Seyed Hossein Mousavian for his alleged role in the assassinations of over 20 Iranian dissidents.

Mousavian is also facing calls for his summary dismissal because of his ongoing support for two US-designated terrorist organizations, Hamas and Hezbollah, and his endorsement of an Iranian regime fatwa to execute the British-American writer Salman Rushdie.

Over 70 people, including a survivor of a 1992 assassination operation reportedly linked to Mousavian, protested last Friday in Princeton against the controversial academic.

Mousavian was the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ambassador (1990-1997) to Germany when the former Iranian regime president, Akbar Rafsanjani, ordered a team of assassins to murder Kurdish dissidents in a Berlin restaurant called Mykonos in 1992.

The Iranian regime ordered assassination resulted in the murder of four Kurdish dissidents, according to a Berlin court verdict. 

Accusations against Mousavian

Lawdan Bazargan, the lead organizer of the campaign to terminate Mousavian’s employment and a former political prisoner in Iran, told the Jerusalem Post, "It's astounding that Princeton's Program on Science and Global Security, with the noble mission of advancing national and international policies for a safer and more peaceful world, has chosen to associate itself with Seyed Hossein Mousavian, who stands accused of involvement in terrorist attacks in Europe. By retaining Mousavian, Princeton jeopardizes its own reputation and undermines its commitment to human rights and global security.”

On Friday, April 26, we held a protest at Princeton University demanding the removal of Seyed Hossein Mousavian. Mousavian, linked to terrorist activities, represents a past we cannot ignore. We stand for accountability and justice.#FireMousavian#PrincetonProtest @AAIRIA_Org pic.twitter.com/k2H0Z3FWK5

— Lawdan Bazargan (@LawdanBazargan) April 30, 2024

Mousavian served as a high level official for the Islamic Republic of Iran in a number of positions, including as the chief spokesman for Tehran’s nuclear negotiating team from 2003 to 2005.

Bazargan oversees the campaign Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA). According to AAIRIA, “In the seven years Mousavian  served as IRI’s ambassador in Germany, more than 23 Iranians were killed in terrorist attacks on European soil orchestrated by IRI...These heinous acts underscore the direct involvement of the IRI embassy in Bonn and Mousavian’s role in Iran's state-sponsored terrorism and orchestrating violence against innocent civilians.” 

Parviz Dastmalchi, a survivor of the Mykonos terrorism attack who flew from Germany to the US to speak at the protest, said “Mousavian, as the ambassador of the IRI, was the official representative of this criminal government and is still a supporter of this brutal regime. In addition, according to documents and the testimony of one witness at the Berlin court, he was actively involved in the killing of dissidents in Western Europe.”

Dastmalchi, a politician and prolific writer on Iranian regime terrorism, added “We, the Justice seekers, demand Mousavian's expulsion from the university and his removal from the United States of America.”

In November, the US House Committee of Education and the Workforce launched an inquiry into the role of Mousavian in allegedly advancing the interests of Iran’s regime. The US State Department has repeatedly classified Iran’s regime the world’s worst state-sponsor of terrorism.

In April, the US-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) published a damning report about Mousavian's alleged terrorism and support for Islamist terrorist movements. MEMRI first translated German articles that showed Mousavian's reported endorsement of Hamas, Hezbollah and the fatwa against Rushdie.

According to a  1997 article from the Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, Abolghasem Mesbahi, a former Iranian intelligence official, told a Berlin court during the Mykonos trial: "Mousavian participated in most of the [Iranian regime's] crimes that took place in Europe."

The Berlin court sentenced Iranian intelligence operative Kazam Darabi to life imprisonment for the Mykonos murders, with Iranian secret service chief Ali Fallahian implicated in the legal ruling  as the chief  perpetrator of the killings. The court also sentenced Hezbollah operatives to prison terms.

In the interview with the German paper Taz, Mousavian referred to the court conviction as "nonsense," and declared Iran's support for Hamas "in its struggle," and said  "We support Hezbollah morally." When approached by the Post, Mousavian declined to renounce his support for Hamas and Hezbollah. 

In a November statement to the Post, Mousavian wrote about the Mykonos case that  ”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.”

Reuters reported in a 1992 article  titled "German Opposition Wants Iranian Envoy Expelled” that " ...Hossein Mousavian was summoned to the German Foreign Ministry after remarking in a radio interview that Bonn would not act against its trade interests with Iran to back Rushdie's request for the death decree to be lifted.”

According to the Reuters article, Social Democrat politician Freimut Duve told parliament in a debate about the "Rushdie Affair" that Mousavian should leave Germany because he did not respect its laws.

Reuters noted that "In the radio interview after Rushdie's appearance, Mousavian defended the historic Islamic practice of imposing the death sentence for blasphemy."

Mousavian told Spiegel magazine in 1993 about Rushdie that “ I hate him. He insulted my religion, my prophet, the laws.”

When the Post asked Mousavian about his support for the fatwa, he declined to comment.  In 2022,  Hadi Matar, an American man of Lebanese origin who had been in contact with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard, nearly killed Rushdie.

Representatives from the Kurdish community participated in the protest against Mousavian. According to a statement issued by a coalition of Kurdish groups, “The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan urges Princeton University to take appropriate action and terminate Mousavian's employment with this esteemed institution. Allowing his continued presence despite strong calls from Iranian society and his involvement in terrorism would set a negative precedent for the institute's future.”

The American-Jewish Princeton undergraduate student ,Jared Stone, spoke at the anti-Mousavian rally. He said that “The malign influence of the terrorist regime, propagated by the likes of Mousavian and [Behrooz] Ghamari-Tabrizi [Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton], has poisoned the well of our campus discourse. To my shock and dismay, student protesters yesterday brandished the flag of Hezbollah and drowned Princeton’s McCosh Courtyard in a sea of applause at the mention of the terrorist regime in Tehran.“

Stone added “Yes, you heard that right — our nation’s supposed best and brightest egged on the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and its proxies. This is the same regime that imprisoned Princeton PhD student Xiyue Wang for 3 years and whose paramilitary proxy Kata’ib Hezbollah holds another Princeton doctoral student, Elizabeth Tsurkov, captive as we speak.”

Tsurkov is a dual Russian-Israeli citizen who was kidnapped in 2022 by the Iranian regime-controlled proxy Kata’ib Hezbollah. Ghamari-Tabrizi did not immediately respond to a Post press query.

The Post sent detailed press queries to Princeton University president Christopher Ludwig Eisgruber about Mousavian’s alleged terrorist activities and support for Hamas, Hezbollah and the fatwa. Eisgruber declined to comment.