Iran Experts Initiative

The Iran Experts Initiative (IEI) was a project Iranian Foreign Ministry officials initiated in 2014. According to reports based on leaked emails, the initiative was used to "promote Tehran's arguments in the west". Members of the Iran Experts Initiative worked as academics and researchers for think tanks in the West, and gave advice to Europe and the U.S. According to a report by Iran International, the project consisted of "an influence network formed and guided by Tehran".

Leaked emails
In September 2023, the London-based Persian-language news television channel Iran International and the news website Semafor obtained leaked foreign ministry emails in which Iranian government officials claimed credit for assembling a network of Western scholars called the Iran Experts Initiative.

According to the reports, the thousands of emails describe an effort by Iran's Foreign Ministry "to improve Tehran's image abroad". The reports also said Iran sought to build international ties with influential academics and researchers.

Pentagon official and academic Ariane Tabatabai has been linked to the Iran Experts Initiative. The Pentagon launched an investigation following the reports. Tabatabai, as well as Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group and Dina Esfandiary (also linked to the Iran Experts Initiative), had previously worked closely with special U.S. envoy for Iran Robert Malley, who had been placed on leave in June 2023 for "serious security concerns". Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Mostafa Zahrani is also said to have participated in the initiative.

Contact with Tehran
Iranian diplomat Saeed Khatibzadeh wrote a letter in 2014 to Mostafa Zahrani (head of Iran's Foreign Ministry think tank) saying that the core members of the IEI had been selected. IEI members reportedly communicated with Iranian officials, submitting draft op-eds for review. The op-eds included viewpoints such as "According to Khamenei's fatwa, Nuclear bomb is not Halal in shiite belief and therefore will not be developed by the theocratic regime" and "the regime has no viable alternative and MEK is disliked in Iran, and therefore this regime has to and will stay despite any discontent."

Official reactions
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers expressed "deep concern with the Department [of Defense]'s hiring of Ariane Tabatabai". State Department spokesman Matt Miller said that the report "looked like an account of things that happened almost a decade ago", while Intelligence and Special Operations Subcommittee Chairman Jack Bergman said Tabatabai's "close ties" to the Iranian government "should disqualify her for a position in such a sensitive area as special operations and low-intensity conflict."