Pressure mounts on German NGO to sever ties with ex-Iran official who supports atomic bomb

Former Iranian nuclear negotiator Seyed Hossein Mousavian, who expressed a wish that the former Islamic Republic president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would have built an atomic bomb, had a goal to “advance Iran’s nuclear weapons program all along,” US Iran expert Alireza Nader, told the Jerusalem Post last week.

Mousavian previously told an Iranian regime-controlled news outlet, “If I was the decision-maker [during the Ahmadinejad era] … I would have produced a nuclear bomb.”

“Why then, asks Nader, “does Princeton continue to present this dangerous man as a trustworthy academic?”

Nader added “It’s incredible that the Obama and Biden administrations relied on Mousavian as a credible interlocutor and advocate on the nuclear issue.”

Nader’s criticism of the pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah academic, who teaches at Princeton University, comes amid a slated Thursday demonstration against the former Iranian official in front of the Körber Foundation in Hamburg, Germany.

A multi-pronged international campaign launched by the California-based Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA) is demanding that Körber and Princeton sever ties with Mousavian.

Mina Ahadi, a prominent Iranian dissident in Germany, spearheading the Hamburg protest against Mousvaian, wrote in a public letter to the director of Körber, Lothar Dietmar, “Mousavian has been active in the Iranian government since his youth and served as ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Germany under the governments of [Akbar] Rafsanjani and [Mohammad] Khatami. He is accused of being involved in the killings of at least 24 Iranian opponents of the Islamic Republic abroad, including the 1992 Mykonos restaurant massacre of Kurds in Berlin.”

Ahadi continued that Mousavian “represents a government based on crime and sexual apartheid that creates insecurity around the world by supporting terrorist groups. Despite these facts, he claims to be an advocate for peace.

“Your foundation should, in view of the history of its founder, Kurt Körber, who produced military equipment using forced labor during the Nazi era, make a special effort not to make concessions to the terrorist regime in Iran and to avoid such eyesores.”

Walls are closing in

THEW WALLS are closing in on Mousavian, according to his critics. In April, he lashed out at Iranian-Americans and German-Iranians, many of them victims of Iranian brutality, protesting in front of Princeton University.

Daniel Killy, a member of the advisory board of the Jewish Community of Hamburg, told the Post, “It is absolutely unbearable that the Körber foundation has been and still is engaging Mr. Mousavian.”

Korber should stop “inviting apologists of the Mullah regime,” and “sack the people within their foundation being responsible for the invitations over the years.”

Gazelle Sharmahd, whose father was kidnapped and sentenced to death, told the Post, “No think tank in our democratic countries should be advertising regime propaganda disguised as ‘diplomatic tactics’ and ‘academic research.’”

Sharmahd, a well-known human rights advocate in Germany and in the US, added, “He poses as a peace promoter while simultaneously attending the funeral of Islamic Republican Guard Corps commander (Qasem) Soleimani” assassinated by the US in 2020.

“Universities and think tanks, like Körber and SWP (German Institute for International and Security Affairs), who frequently push the narrative and goals of the Islamic regime as ‘expert advice’ ... should be investigated because that is abnormal.”

She continued by saying “the Lebanese, Afghan, Syrian, Iraqi, Yemeni and particularly the Jewish community, who have been massively targeted by antisemitic violence and propaganda,” should cooperate to sever these destructive and dangerous relationships.

Mousavian has been accused of stoking antisemitism. After October 7 Mousavian compared Israel to Nazi Germany and claimed that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza, calling it “a crime similar to the Holocaust of Nazi Germany.”

MOUSAVIAN ENDORSED the Ayatollah Khomeini fatwa to murder the British-American writer Salman Rushdie. Yet, Julian Claaßen a spokesman for Körber, refused to comment on that, and told the Post, “At Körber-Stiftung, we stand up for the fundamental values of our constitution, including the inviolability of human dignity and the prohibition of discrimination based on gender, origin, language, background, faith, or political views.... It is our policy not to tolerate extremist ideas or individuals who use hatred, incitement, or violence against our democracy.”

He refused to condemn Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, though Germany and the United States do.

Körber’s spokesman also declined to call Mousavian’s Israel-Nazi comparison antisemitic. The Federal German government has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which calls such a comparison antisemitism.

Hamburg’s commissioner to support Jewish life and combat antisemitism, Stefan Hensel, told the Post, “ I cannot comment substantively on the specific allegations as the breadth and depth of this issue transcends my present competencies.”

According to its website, Körber is an international technology group with more than 12,000 employees at over 100 locations worldwide“ and is involved in Digital, Pharma, Supply Chain, and Technologies. Körber, which has business locations in the United States, posted sales in fiscal year 2023 totaling €2.9 billion.

Henriette Viebig, a spokeswoman for Körber AG, told the Post, “Körber is committed to freedom and democracy” and noted, “We are as committed to the fundamental values of our German constitution as our owner, the Körber-Stiftung ... We oppose any political movement that calls these values into question and threatens our open society ... In this way, we want to contribute to civic cohesion and a vibrant democracy.”

سید حسین موسویان در روزنامه گفتگو با رورنامه همشهری غنی‌سازی‌ 20درصدی را واکنشی ضعیف از سوی دولت احمدی‌نژاد به قطعنامه‌های شورای امنیت می‌داند و می‌گوید اگر او در آن زمان تصمیم‌گیر بود دستور ساخت بمب اتم را می‌داد.سید حسین موسویان، استاد دانشگاه پرینستون، سفیر رژیم در آلمان در… pic.twitter.com/3dCCDeHKvF

— AAIRIA (@AAIRIA_Org) June 17, 2024

Viebig refused to comment on whether Körber conducts business with Iran’s regime or in the Islamic Republic.

There are discussions within the AAIRIA to mount a global boycott of Körber AG products if the Körber Foundation does not pull the plug on its relationship with Mousavian and Iran’s regime.

Mousavian did not respond to the Post’s email or WhatsApp queries.