Lawmakers seek answers after reports of links between top Pentagon official and Iran

A senior Pentagon official who earlier worked for Robert Malley, the State Department’s special envoy to Iran who had his security clearance suspended earlier this year, is alleged to have been part of a soft-power influence operation created and managed by officials in Tehran.

On Tuesday, senior lawmakers on Capitol Hill sent Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin a letter demanding answers about Ariane Tabatabai’s employment with the Department of Defense and her relationship with the Iranian regime.

Ms. Tabatabai is an Iranian-American scholar who now works as the chief of staff for Christopher P. Maier, the Pentagon’s assistant secretary of Defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. She had previously worked for the State Department.

“The Iranian regime poses one of the greatest threats to U.S. national security, Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism, their proxies have killed Americans, and they are actively trying to assassinate multiple former U.S. officials,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, Alabama Republican, said in a statement.

Ms. Tabatabai was prominently featured in an investigation published Tuesday by the Semafor news website that linked her to the “Iran Experts Initiative” — an effort created by Iran’s Foreign Ministry to improve Tehran’s image abroad, particularly regarding the country’s suspect nuclear program.

Semafor investigators reported they dug into details about the Iran Experts Initiative after obtaining a cache of Iranian government correspondence and emails. They said the information they uncovered said Ms. Tabatabai “checked in” with Iran’s Foreign Ministry on at least two occasions before attending security policy events. In 2014, she told them about being slated to testify before Congress on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration and repudiated by President Trump three years later 

According to Semafor, Ms. Tabatabai also told Mostafa Zahari, the head of the in-house think tank at Iran’s Foreign Ministry,  about an article she published in the Boston Globe that downplayed the notion that Tehran was seeking a nuclear program in order to create weapons.

Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, said he found the reports of an alleged Iranian influence operation “indescribably troubling.”

“Americans have rightly been asking why the Biden administration is so friendly with the Iranian regime, and why Biden administration officials have so single-mindedly enabled Iranian nuclear progress and terrorism,” Mr. Cruz said Tuesday. “These reports and emails suggest a vast Iranian influence operation that goes to the very top of the administration.”

On Tuesday, a Pentagon official would only say that Ms. Tabatabai was “thoroughly and properly vetted” as a condition of her employment with the Defense Department.

“We are honored to have her serve,” the official said.

State Department spokesman Matt Miller was more dismissive of the allegations, telling reporters the Semafor story looked like an account of things that happened almost a decade ago, most of which  involve people that do not currently work for the government.”

Without mentioning Ms. Tabatabai by name, he added, “The one current U.S. government official I did see mentioned in that story has written critically of Iran on a number of occasions before joining the government and underwent a thorough background investigation to obtain a security clearance before joining the State Department.”

Tuesday’s letter from Rep. Rogers and Rep. Jack Bergman, Michigan Republican and chairman of the panel’s Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations, said Ms. Tabatabai’s “close ties” to the Iranian regime should disqualify her for a position in such a sensitive area as special operations and low-intensity conflict.

“The office … oversees many of the Department’s most sensitive operations and programs, to include those to counter Iran’s malign activities throughout the world,” the lawmakers wrote. 

Sen. Cruz said any U.S. government officials linked to the emails featured in the Semafor article should have their security clearances pulled until the allegations are fully resolved.

The State Department still has not provided a clear answer on why the security clearance for Mr. Malley, a key architect of the original 2015 nuclear deal, had his security clearance revoked in the spring.

Mr. Biden’s hopes to revive the original deal after Mr. Trump’s unilateral withdrawal have been repeatedly frustrated since he took office in January 2021, although Washington and Tehran did agree to a swap of prisoners last week that also included the unfreezing of $6 billion in Iranian funds held in South Korean banks.