UANI Applauds Trump Administration for Halting Princeton University’s Federal Funding Over Antisemitism Concerns

UANI Urges Trump Administration to Condition Princeton University’s Federal Funding on Cutting Ties with Iran Regime Operative Hossein Mousavian 

(New York, NY) – United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) Chairman Governor Jeb Bush and CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace released the following statement today after the Trump administration cut federal research funding to Princeton University.

“We applaud President Trump for cutting funding for research grants at Princeton University given the rampant antisemitism on campus. As a part of the Trump administration’s historic initiatives to combat antisemitism, we recommend they expand them to target the Islamic Republic’s presence in the United States. Iran’s regime is the leading state-sponsor of antisemitism worldwide.

“Since 2009, Princeton University has employed Hossein Mousavian, the Iranian regime’s former ambassador to Germany at a time when the Islamic Republic murdered dissidents in the country. Since then, Mousavian has continued to serve the regime, including at Princeton University. In 2016, then-foreign minister Javad Zarif disclosed that Mousavian is “completely tied to the regime and the country…and he has worked, and is currently working hard, [for it].”

“While U.S. citizens are languishing behind bars as hostages in Iranian prisons and as the regime continues to attempt to murder American citizens on U.S. soil, it is scandalous that Princeton University has continued to employ Mousavian, especially with his troublesome record.

“UANI has for years urged Princeton University to terminate Mousavian’s affiliation, but the university has never provided a satisfactory response. Its inaction remains unacceptable. The Immigration and Naturalization Act makes clear that “an alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable.” Just as the U.S. government is basing former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation on this statutory provision, we urge the Trump administration to apply the same standard to Mousavian’s case. 

“Mousavian has, for decades, been spreading Iranian regime propaganda throughout his stay in the United States and has posed serious adverse foreign policy consequences. He has also appeared in Iranian regime media from his Princeton perch, gleefully recounting its threats to the lives of former U.S. officials. Mousavian is also on record in the 1990s defending the ayatollah’s fatwa issued against author Salman Rushdie, a U.S. citizen who was almost stabbed to death in New York in 2022 by a man radicalized by the Iranian fatwa.

“Mousavian has no place at Princeton University, much less in the United States. We urge Princeton University to sever its ties with him and for the U.S. government to deport him. The Trump administration should condition the halt in federal funds on Princeton University cutting ties with Mousavian.

“Lastly, press reports indicate that multiple Iranian officials and their families retain U.S. green cards. We encourage the Trump administration to review these existing green cards, and as appropriate, revoke them as Iran’s regime remains the leading state-sponsor of antisemitism and terrorism. They never should have been issued in the first place.”

To read UANI’s letter to Princeton University about Hossein Mousavian, please click here.

To sign your name to UANI’s petition calling for the removal of Hossein Mousavian, please click here.