Cruz pressures Princeton to probe professor accused of pro-Iran ties, student risk

EXCLUSIVE – Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz called on his alma mater, Princeton University, to dismiss a former high-level Iranian regime official because he is allegedly making students feel unsafe amid recent outbreaks of antisemitism at the New Jersey university.

The ex-official for the Islamic Republic of Iran, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, who is a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at the university, is under pressure on many fronts from congressional representatives, Princeton students and experts on antisemitism. 

“Mousavian is closely linked to the Iranian regime and to the regime’s campaigns of terrorism and murder. His presence at Princeton makes students feel justifiably afraid for their safety. Princeton’s decision to keep employing him shows they care less about their students, and more about providing a platform for pro-regime and anti-American propaganda. That kind of reckless institutional ideological bias is exactly why the Trump administration is reassessing federal funding for Princeton,” Cruz told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement.

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Fox News Digital previously reported that Mousavian expressed support for the U.S.-designated terrorist movements, Hamas and Hezbollah, and appeared to pay tribute to the global Iranian terrorist Qassem Soleimani in 2020 when he attended his funeral. 

President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike to eliminate Soleimani in January 2020 for his role in the murders of over 600 American military personnel in the Middle East and his planning of new terrorist attacks.

Mousavian has declined to renounce his support for Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s fatwa (religious decree) to assassinate the British-American writer Salman Rushdie. 

A Hezbollah flag was on display during a Princeton student protest encampment against Israel last year. The Iran-backed Hezbollah was responsible for a 1983 bombing that murdered 241 U.S. military members in Beirut.

Maximillian Meyer, president of Princeton Tigers for Israel, and an undergraduate at the university, told Fox News Digital, “I commend Sen. Cruz for raising urgent concerns about Princeton’s employment of Mousavian, whose career has been defined by shilling for the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. Credible reports linking Mousavian to the oversight of Iranian dissident assassinations in Europe – alongside his endorsement of the fatwa on Salman Rushdie – are deeply alarming.”

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Fox News Digital first reported in November 2023 that the House Committee on Education and the Workforce launched an investigation into Mousavian’s role in advancing the interests of the clerical regime in Tehran.

During Mousavian’s tenure as Iran’s ambassador to Germany, he was in charge of the embassy that a German court found “served as the ‘headquarters’ for the planning of the 1992 assassination of four Iranian dissidents at the Greek restaurant Mykonos in Berlin.”

However, the former Iranian ambassador previously told Fox News Digital that “This accusation is a big lie,” and “The 398-page verdict is published, and everyone can have access to it. The Berlin court verdict does not contain any direct or indirect allegations against me. German authorities never forced me to leave the country.… I have been a frequent visitor to Germany.”

Yet, Iranian dissidents and human rights experts uncovered testimony from Abolghasem Mesbahi, a former senior-level Iranian intelligence official, who told the Berlin court during the Mykonos trial, “Mousavian participated in most of the [Iranian regime’s] crimes that took place in Europe.”

Mousavian did not respond to multiple Fox News Digital press queries, WhatsApp messages and telephone calls for this article. 

Meyer, the Princeton undergraduate student, said, “Anyone who has served in senior roles for the repressive Islamic Republic of Iran poses a clear threat to American national security. His continued employment at Princeton is a damning indictment of the anti-Americanism festering within so-called ‘elite’ institutions.”

Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber, who recently said he would defy Trump’s efforts to stop antisemitism via federal funding cuts to the wealthy university, did not respond to Fox News Digital email press queries and telephone calls about Mousavian.

Fox News Digital recently reported that pro-Hamas and pro-Palestinian agitators stormed a talk by former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at Princeton, sparking criticism from Jewish students at Princeton.

In a statement to Fox News Digital over the incident, Eisgruber said he was “appalled” at reports of antisemitic language used during Bennett’s visit. He added, “Such behavior is reprehensible and intolerable. The University is investigating and will pursue disciplinary measures as appropriate, to the extent any members of the Princeton University community are implicated.”

It is unclear if Eisgruber suspended or expelled students who prevented Bennett from speaking. Mousavian has faced criticism for stoking antisemitism since Hamas invaded Israel and slaughtered over 1,200 people, including more than 40 Americans. Eisgruber has gone silent about Mousavian’s actions.

A Fox News Digital examination of Mousavian’s X account shows a high number of Persian and English posts attacking the Jewish state, including comparing Israel with Nazi Germany. The comparison between Israel and Nazi Germany is classified as modern antisemitism, according to the widely accepted definition formulated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. 

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Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and director of Global Social Action at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, asked Eisgruber in a statement to Fox News Digital: Why does the university continue to protect Mousavian at a time of raging antisemitism and what is he still doing there? 

Cooper further asked, in the context of the reported antisemitic mob attack on Bennett and Mousavian’s alleged ties to the murders carried out by Iran’s regime, why can’t “the President of Princeton connect the dots”?

Cooper said on Eisgruber’s watch “It is a shameful chapter that must end the right way.” Cooper accused Eisgruber of “stoic silence or indifference to antisemitism” and “stonewalling” efforts to hold Mousavian accountable for his alleged crimes and antisemitism. Cooper continued that Eisgruber owes it to Jewish students and faculty, Iranian-Americans, and Iranian dissidents to answer basic questions about Mousavian.

Eisgruber has not obstructed any law enforcement efforts to investigate Mousavian’s alleged crimes.

Cooper also called on Princeton and Mousavian to submit his Ph.D. for examination. Fox News Digital has learned that neither Princeton University nor the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, where Mousavian allegedly obtained his Ph.D. in 2002, were willing to produce a copy of his dissertation. 

Mousavian was the head of the Foreign Relations Committee of Iran’s National Security Council (1997-2005), according to his Princeton webpage.

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Gary Hughes, a spokesman for the University of Kent, told Fox News Digital, “Data protection principle also means that neither myself nor any other colleague across the University can disclose personal data about this or any other current or former student.” 

He said the university’s Freedom of Information (FOI) office can answer the request. The FOI office denied a request and later said after Fox News Digital appealed that, “We are currently conducting an internal review in relation to your request.” 

A British-Iranian man sought to obtain Mousavian’s Ph.D. in January, according to email correspondence obtained by Fox News Digital. Kent University’s Open Research team wrote in one email, “I am afraid we have no record of Mr. Seyed Hossein Mousavian’s thesis in the library catalogue.” Fox News Digital searches for Mousavian’s Ph.D. in American, British and German academic databases showed no results. 

The Swedish-Iranian author Iraj Mesdaghi told Fox News Digital that he sought to obtain Mousavian’s Ph.D. in 2013. The University of Kent declined to produce it. Mesdaghi wrote about the great lengths he went to in order to secure access to Mousavian’s alleged Ph.D. on his website, including contact with the FOI office. 

Shirley M. Tilghman, the former president of Princeton University when Mousavian was hired in 2009, declined to answer a press query about whether she vetted Mousavian and his alleged Ph.D. 

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Fox News Digital press queries regarding Cruz’s comment to the Department of Education, the U.S. State Department and Leo Terrell, who heads the Trump administration’s task force on antisemitism, were not immediately answered.

Fox News Digital reporter Louis Casiano contributed to this report.