WHO IS HOSSEIN MOUSAVIAN? DIPLOMAT OR DELIBERATE DISINFORMATION?
PRINCETON, N.J.—A former lead Iranian nuclear negotiator has taken up residence at Princeton University, marking the highest-ranking member of Tehran’s political elite to relocate to the U.S. since last year’s political uprising against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
U.S. and European officials view Hossein Mousavian as particularly important, as he has spent more than two decades working on foreign-policy issues for the Islamic Republic ranging from helping secure the release of hostages held by the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon to working with the West to establish a new government in Afghanistan following the overthrow of the Taliban.
He played a key role in the Iranian negotiating team that agreed in 2003 for Tehran to suspend the enrichment of uranium at its nuclear sites. He was briefly jailed in 2007 for alleged espionage, and was banned by Tehran from holding any diplomatic posts.
In September, Mr. Mousavian, 53 years old, arrived at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs as a visiting scholar, where he has been writing on Tehran’s nuclear diplomacy and U.S.-Iranian relations. Neither Princeton nor the Obama administration would comment on the Iranian diplomat’s stay in the U.S., but American and European diplomats engaged in nuclear diplomacy with Iran say they are closely scrutinizing Mr. Mousavian’s work for insights into Tehran’s decision making.
Zuma Press Hossein Mousavian, shown in 2006, was seen as a moderate in Tehran.
Mr. Mousavian said in his first interview since arriving at Princeton that he wasn’t in the U.S. to rally support for Tehran’s political opposition, known as the Green Movement. He said he is focused on his academic work and recovering from an illness contracted during his imprisonment and subsequent legal battles. He said he intends to return to Tehran at some point.
“I don’t need asylum from any country, and I would never apply for it,” he said.
U.S. and European diplomats view Tehran’s purge of Mr. Mousavian as part of a dangerous political realignment inside Tehran, which has resulted in the removal of most moderate, Western-oriented leaders and bureaucrats. In their place, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Mr. Ahmadinejad are placing more ideologically oriented officials and members of Iran’s military elite.
Mr. Mousavian, they say, was one of the top Iranian diplomats who both understood the West and had strong political backers inside Tehran, particularly former Iranian president and current opposition leader Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, whom Mr. Mousavian has served as a top foreign-policy adviser.
“Mousavian was one of the very best Iranian diplomats that was seeking to push his country in the right direction,” said a European official who met with him in Tehran. “He was part of the regime that wanted Iran to open up.”
Tehran’s 2003 decision to freeze uranium-enrichment was viewed as a breakthrough that had the potential to lead to the normalizing of the country’s ties with the West. Mr. Khamenei, however, ordered an end to the freeze in 2005, and Mr. Mousavian’s negotiating team was replaced.
In 2007, Mr. Ahmadinejad’s government charged the diplomat with espionage and briefly jailed him as part of what is viewed by Western diplomats as a broader purge of moderates inside the Iranian government. Mr. Mousavian was cleared of all spying charges by Iranian courts, but continues to be barred from diplomatic posts.
In addition to Mr. Mousavian, a slew of other senior Iranian bureaucrats, diplomats and opposition figures have either been sidelined or fled to the West since opposition protesters challenged Mr. Ahmadinejad’s re-election a year ago, resulting in a broad government crackdown.
Javad Zarif, a pro-engagement former ambassador to the U.N., is under virtual house arrest in Tehran, said Western officials. Top aides to Iran’s two leading opposition figures, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, have also been forced to set up political bases overseas.
Earlier this month, the United Nations Security Council passed its fourth round of economic sanctions against the Iranian government for its nuclear pursuits. Tehran in recent weeks said it would build as many as 10 new reactors and it has limited the access of some U.N. inspectors from its nuclear sites. On Sunday, Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta said Iran could develop nuclear weapons in two years.
Individuals who have met Mr. Mousavian said he is deeply concerned by the developments inside Iran following last year’s presidential election, which many Iranians claimed was rigged to insure Mr. Ahmadinejad’s re-election, a charge Tehran denies. But Mr. Mousavian continues to press for the U.S. to engage Tehran in a bid to reduce regional tensions, according to writings viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
He argues that any Iranian government, even one headed by opposition political leaders, would remain committed to developing the infrastructure to produce nuclear fuel. But he says improved trust between Washington and Tehran could still allow for necessary safeguards to be put in place to guard against Iran building atomic weapons.
“The target of the recent [U.N. sanctions] resolution was to soften Iran’s position in regard to its nuclear program, but in reality it will only serve to radicalize its position,” Mr. Mousavian writes in papers that have been distributed inside Princeton.
Mr. Mousavian also writes that the U.S. should still shape a comprehensive dialogue with Iran based on shared interests in stabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan. He also says the U.S. should develop with Tehran a broad security plan for the Persian Gulf that could prove crucial to securing the free flow of energy in and out of the strategic waterway.
“Constructive cooperation between Tehran and Washington is crucial for a regional security structure,” he writes. “Thirty years of hostilities between Tehran and Washington has only served to diminish the security in the region.”
Mr. Mousavian, in spite of his close ties to Mr. Rafsanjani, played down the prospects for any quick leadership change in Tehran and said a move toward democracy could only be stimulated from inside. He advises Washington to fashion a patient foreign policy toward Iran, understanding that progress in improving U.S.-Iran relations will take years, not months.
“Regime change is not part of Iran’s outlook in the near future, and Iran is not in a pre-revolutionary state,” Mr. Mousavian writes. “What is happening on the streets of Iran is an internal challenge wherein the final result will greatly impact Iran’s domestic and foreign policies.”
Write to Jay Solomon at jay.solomon@wsj.com
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