Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Zachary Hada/U.S. Air Force photo
Seyed Hossein Mousavian, Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at Princeton University, engages with the attendees of the 14th annual U.S. Strategic Command Deterrence Symposium in Omaha, Neb., Aug. 17, 2023
(JNS) — Seyed Hossein Mousavian resigned from his job as a visiting research collaborator at Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security in May after 15 years at the school, according to his official biography.
Before joining the faculty, Mousavian served as a senior Iranian nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005 and as the Islamic Republic’s ambassador to Germany from 1990 to 1997.
U.S. lawmakers and Iranian dissidents have accused Mousavian of continuing to serve the regime and of culpability for Iranian terrorist attacks, including the 1992 Mykonos Restaurant assassinations in Berlin, in which an Iran-linked hit squad gunned down four Iranian-Kurdish opposition leaders.
A nuclear specialist, Mousavian spent much of his time after he was hired at Princeton in 2009 advocating for the Obama administration’s 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the Iran nuclear deal — and reportedly visited the White House at least three times during Barack Obama’s presidency.
The Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists, a U.S.-based group of former political prisoners in Iran that has called for Mousavian to be fired, welcomed his resignation on Saturday.
“We exposed the truth: Mousavian is not a neutral scholar but a former ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran who defended the fatwa to kill author Salman Rushdie, promoted anti-Israel propaganda, amplified antisemitic voices by sharing their rhetoric on Mousavian’s social-media platforms and openly supported U.S.-designated terrorist organizations Hezbollah and Hamas,” the group stated.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a Princeton alumnus, repeated his calls for Mousavian to be fired in April after the professor denied any ongoing links to the Iranian regime and challenged the senator to a debate.
“I try not to be in the room with people linked to Iranian terrorists, who have murdered dozens of dissidents,” Cruz wrote. “Your books are unreadable, and the only debate you should be having is with U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents, at the end of which you should be deported.”
On Sunday, Mousavian wrote that he had resigned voluntarily.
“After 15 years of service at Princeton University, I retired at my own request at the end of May 2025,” he wrote. “I express my utmost gratitude and appreciation to the Princeton University authorities for their support and, in particular, their commitment to ‘freedom of expression.’” (JNS sought comment from Princeton.)
Following his resignation, the Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists called for Mousavian to be expelled from the United States.
“Given Mousavian’s incriminating record, we now call on the U.S. State Department to deport him to Germany, where Mousavian must answer for his role in the killings of at least 24 Iranians on European soil, including the murders of Shapour Bakhtiar and Fereydoun Farrokhzad, as well as Abdul Rahman Ghasemlou, assassinated in Vienna in 1989, and Kazem Rajavi, assassinated in Switzerland in 1990,” the group wrote.
