The undersigned call on Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber to immediately terminate the employment of former Iranian Ambassador Seyed Hossein Mousavian at Princeton University. Last year, Mousavian gleefully remarked that “An American told me that [former U.S. Iran Envoy] Brian Hook’s wife had not slept for several days and that she was shaking and crying. That’s how afraid they were” in an Iranian government-sponsored documentary glorifying the final days in the life of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (“IRGC-QF”) Commander Major-General Qassem Soleimani.
Mousavian, currently working for Princeton as a Middle East and Nuclear Policy Specialist at the Program on Science and Global Security, honored Soleimani by attending his funeral in Iran and participated in propaganda glorifying his actions and reveling in the threats to Americans.
His presence on campus is an affront to Princeton’s reputation as a top academic institution. Even more concerning is that in August 2023, U.S. Strategic Command hosted Mousavian as the keynote speaker at its deterrence symposium as Tehran continues to try to assassinate former senior U.S. officials, including a former secretary of defense and commander of U.S. Central Command. U.S. Strategic Command should never have issued this invitation, and it would not have occurred had Mousavian not been employed at Princeton.
Mousavian should never have been employed by Princeton in the first place. On his watch as Iran’s ambassador to Germany, regime agents carried out assassinations on German soil – and his affinity for and cooperation with the Iranian regime to this day is indisputable. Former Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has stated that Mousavian is “completely tied to the regime and the country…and he has worked, and is currently working hard, [for it].”
Help us demand action from university leaders today. Please sign the petition and join the UANI community in holding the university, its president, and its board of trustees accountable. Together, we can send a message that as an agent for a state sponsor of terrorism, Seyed Hossein Mousavian has no place in a great American seat of learning and must be removed from his position immediately.
