Ariane Tabatabai, a Pentagon aide of Iranian origin, has been accused of participating in a covert influence campaign against the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), Iran’s leading opposition group. This allegation was detailed in a report to President Biden, endorsed by former vice presidential national security adviser Lincoln Bloomfield and authored by Ivan Sascha Sheehan, associate dean at the University of Baltimore.
Tabatabai, who still holds her security clearance and role as chief of staff to the Pentagon’s assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, was implicated in a Semafor report earlier this year for her connections with senior Iranian Foreign Ministry officials. Sheehan’s report accuses her and the Iran Experts Initiative, which she co-founded, of smearing the MEK. The aim, according to Sheehan, was to weaken perceptions of the MEK among U.S. foreign policy circles and present the Ayatollah regime as having no viable alternatives.
The Iran Experts Initiative, founded by Tabatabai, Dina Esfandiary, and Saeed Khatibzadeh (now a deputy minister in Iran’s Foreign Ministry), reportedly corresponded with Mostafa Zahrani of Iran’s Foreign Ministry. They are said to have coordinated op-eds advocating for the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran and discrediting democratic opponents of the Iranian regime.
Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca, a former member of the European Parliament and supporter of the report’s findings, was reportedly attacked in Madrid, an incident Sheehan suggests might be linked to the Iranian regime.
Tabatabai, also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, has publicly discussed Iranian politics, emphasizing the resilience of the Islamic Republic despite internal protests and discontent. She briefly worked for then-Iran special envoy Robert Malley in the Biden administration before joining the Pentagon. Malley is currently under FBI investigation following the revocation of his security clearance.
Sen. Roger Wicker and other Senate Republicans have called for a revocation of Tabatabai’s security clearance and a probe into her ties with the Iranian regime, following the revelations in the Semafor report.
Tabatabai has frequently highlighted the MEK’s radical history in her academic work. The MEK, initially formed as a leftist student group in 1965, engaged in violent activities against Iranian officials and U.S. military personnel in the 1970s. After a period of intense repression, it was listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department until 2012.