An Iranian Princeton professor under investigation by the House has been accused of supporting Hamas and Hezbollah after a decades-old interview resurfaced.
In a 1997 interview with the German newspaper Taz, Seyed Hossein Mousavian was asked whether Iran supports groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.
Mousavian, who was Iran’s ambassador to Germany at the time, appears to support Hamas during the interview.
According to a translation of US Middle East Media Research Institute, said: ‘If by this you mean that we supply weapons to Hamas: No, we do not. But if you mean we support the Palestinians in their struggle, yes, we do.’
When asked by the outlet whether Iran provided Hezbollah with material or financial support, he added: “We support Hezbollah morally and not by supplying weapons.”
In a 1997 interview with the German newspaper Taz, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, seen here, was asked whether Iran supports groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.
Mousavian speaks during a panel discussion on “Syria’s Trajectory and Challenges for the United States” in Washington, U.S., on April 6, 2017.
Mousavian, who now works as a specialist in nuclear policy and Middle East security at Princeton University, has also been criticized for anti-Semitic posts on social media.
One such post shared in October last year reads: ‘With the rain bombing of a hospital and the martyrdom of hundreds of wounded Palestinians and medical staff, Israel violated all international conventions.
‘[They have] committed a great and unforgivable war crime, repeated a crime similar to the Holocaust of Nazi Germany and, of course, the hypocrisy of the West in the defense of human rights.’
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, said Fox: ‘Clearly, this is a person who feels that no matter what he does, his status will be protected at Princeton.
‘Anyone who uses that language is demonstrating their anti-Semitic credentials. He feels confident and is immune to any action against him.
‘Princeton has a lot to answer for. To say that this is a scandal would not do justice to the issues raised.
“Maybe it’s time to summon Princeton University to a congressional hearing because it covers sensitive national security issues.”
Mousavian is also currently facing an investigation by the US House of Representatives Education and Workforce Committee for allegedly promoting Iran’s interests.
Mousavian works as a specialist in nuclear policy and Middle East security at Princeton University.
In a post on his social media last year, Mousavian said the Israeli government was comparable to Nazi Germany.
According a letter from congressFirst seen on Fox, twelve Republican committee members questioned Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber about him.
The letter detailed questions about Iran’s influence through its activities on the Ivy League school’s campus.
In November of last year, Rep. Lisa McClain told Fox: “Higher education has bowed to the radical left and America’s enemies for too long, and the mere fact that a former member of the Iranian regime was give him a platform at Princeton is proof of that.” .
‘The Islamic Republic of Iran is not our friend. They are a major adversary, a state sponsor of terrorism, and a destabilizing force in the Middle East that sympathizes with Hamas.
“We cannot allow a radical Iranian to manipulate the minds of young Americans, and it is time we did something about it.”
While Iran’s ambassador to Germany, he was in charge of the embassy that a Berlin court found was the headquarters for planning the assassination of four Iranian dissidents in 1992, Fox reported.
In a 1997 article in the Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, a former Iranian intelligence official told a court during the trial that “Mousavian participated in most of the [regimes] Crimes that occurred in Europe.
Mousavian responded to this last year, telling Fox: “This accusation is a big lie.” The ruling of the Berlin court does not contain any direct or indirect accusation against me.’
Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani was killed in airstrikes launched by the Trump administration in 2020.
In 2022, she sparked fury after smiling during an interview when talking about how the wife of an American diplomat could not sleep for fear of being killed in revenge for the assassination of an Iranian general.
Mousavian smiled during the interview with Iranian television as he discussed the terrorism that the US special envoy to Iran, Brian Hook, and his wife are said to fear.
He was interviewed following the January 2020 assassination of Qasem Soleimani by the Trump administration and how Iran had vowed revenge.
Mousavian said: “I went to America and an American told me that Brian Hook’s wife can’t sleep, she cries and shakes, she told Brian: ‘They will kill you,’ as Hook was complicit in Haj Qassem’s death. [Soleimani]”That’s how much they were shaking,” Mousavian said.
Soleimani, nicknamed the ‘Shadow General’, was considered by some analysts to be the right-hand man of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as the second most powerful person in Iran behind him.
He was killed in a targeted US drone strike on January 3, 2020 at Baghdad International Airport in Iraq on the orders of US President Donald Trump.
When approached by DailyMail.com, Mousavian said he didn’t have time for an interview due to his job at Princeton.