More Stories
Outspoken Iran hawk senator Ted Cruz and a controversial former nuclear negotiator and senior Iranian diplomat turned Princeton academic Seyed Hossein Mousavian have gotten into an online tussle after the Texas lawmaker called for his deportation.
"Dear Senator Ted Cruz, Yesterday, April 28, in your interview with Fox News, you called for my dismissal from Princeton University and made baseless accusations," Mousavian wrote on X.
"I invite you to a public debate so that, while hearing responses to these claims, we can leave the judgment to the American people," he added.
Short of a meeting, Mousavian recommended Cruz read his books, emphasized he supports President Donald Trump's push for an Iranian nuclear deal and said a prison sentence means he cannot return to Iran.
Cruz was unmoved by the invitation and torched Mousavian in a curt reply.
"I try not to be in the room with people linked to Iranian terrorists who have murdered dozens of dissidents."
"Your books are unreadable, and the only debate you should be having is with DHS agents, at the end of which you should be deported," the senator added, referring to the US Department of Homeland Security.
Mousavian was ambassador to Germany when Bonn-based Iranian exile Fereydoun Farrokhzad, an singer and outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic, was murdered in 1992 apparently by agents of the Islamic Republic.
A veteran Iranian commander in March detailed the state's role in his killing, in remarks Mousavian said left him "stunned, amazed, and shocked."
In 2023, several top Republicans, including House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky and now-DOGE chairman Aaron Bean of Florida, wrote to Princeton with their concerns about Mousavian's tenure.
Several Republican lawmakers wrote an open letter to Princeton in 2023 expressing their concerns over Mousavian's employment.
"A German court found (the Iranian embassy in Germany) served as the headquarters for the planning of the 1992 assassination of four Iranian dissidents," the letter said, referring to the 1994 assassination of four Iranian-Kurdish dissidents in a Berlin restaurant.
"Did Princeton consult with US government officials regarding the hiring of Mousavian?"
The US state department and treasury on Wednesday levied more sanctions targeting Iranian petrochemical products even as Washington and Tehran are set for the fourth round of nuclear talks on Saturday.
"The Iranian regime continues to fuel conflict in the Middle East, advance its nuclear program, and support its terrorist partners and proxies," the state department said in a statement.
"Today, the United States is taking action to stem the flow of revenue that the regime uses to fund these destabilizing activities."
The move blacklisted four UAE-based firms accused of selling Iranian petrochemicals and one Turkey-based importer, which the state department said have together generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Iran.
An Iran-based cargo inspection company and a UAE-based marine management company and two vessels it runs were also designated.
Iran’s national security chief Ali Akbar Ahmadian said on Wednesday that Tehran will not relinquish its right to peaceful use of nuclear energy.
"Iran will not forgo its legitimate rights, including the right to peaceful use of nuclear energy," he told a BRICS summit in Brazil on Wednesday, ahead of talks with the United States this weekend.
“Nuclear weapons have no place in Iran’s defensive doctrine, and the evidence for this lies in reports by international monitoring bodies."
"President Trump said the only solution is Iran completely dismantling its program, or we should do it for them. And he's right," the Arkansas Republican wrote on X on Wednesday.
"A nuclear Iran is a direct threat to not just our friends in the Middle East, but to every American."
The statement appeared to walk back comments he had posted earlier in the day in which he focused on Iranian enrichment. US secretary of state Marco Rubio said last week that Iran could be permitted a peaceful nuclear program in a deal.
Many countries maintain civilian nuclear programs with imported enriched uranium.
"They don’t need the centrifuges and highly-enriched uranium for civilian nuclear power,” Cotton said in the audio remarks.
Tehran and Washington are set to resume talks this weekend, but growing calls to condition any agreement on the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure are casting a shadow over early optimism.
The hard line on full dismantlement is the newly stiffened public stance of the White House and US envoy Steve Witkoff and has also been pushed by Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who asserted on Monday that nothing less would be acceptable to his government.
His intervention did not sit well with Tehran.
“Israel’s fantasy that it can dictate what Iran may or may not do is so detached from reality that it hardly merits a response,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X, calling Netanyahu "brazen" for telling a US president what to do.
Somewhat surprisingly, he went on to criticize the Democratic administration of Joe Biden in what appeared to be an attempt to court Donald Trump.
“Netanyahu’s allies in the failed Biden team—who failed to reach a deal with Iran—are FALSELY casting our indirect negotiations with the Trump administration as another JCPOA,” Araghchi wrote.
The significance of this public gesture from an Iranian official—at the expense of the man accused of appeasing Tehran almost every week of his term—cannot be overstated.
This shift in tone may be partly driven by the economic fallout from the port fire in Bandar Abbas, which observers believe has deepened Tehran’s financial strain.
The Islamic Republic, and its chief negotiator Araghchi, have every reason to be apprehensive about a breakdown in talks, given the "very bad" alternative mooted by Trump.
The desire to project cautious optimism was also evident in an editorial on Iran Diplomacy, a website closely aligned with the foreign ministry.
The article outlined two scenarios: the U.S. targeting Iran's nuclear sites, or accepting a “new regional order” in which Tehran becomes a key energy supplier to the West. The latter, it said, is the more likely outcome.
In this scenario, according to Iran Diplomacy, Iran-allied armed groups in the region would be redefined and gradually integrated into formal military structures.
Curiously, the piece framed all this as proof of Tehran's deterrent power and Washington's surrender to Iran’s demands, while cautioning against overconfidence when dealing with a president who has a “bad record of undermining commitments.”
Two reformist publications, Sharq and Etemaad, published similar stories on the same day.
Sharq said there was room for cautious optimism while talks continue, noting that major issues remain unresolved.
Etemaad reported that a recent poll showed 8 in 10 respondents support the talks and a potential agreement, provided it protects Iran’s interests and preserves advances in nuclear science and missile technology.
The pro-government publication pointed out that in a similar poll conducted just before the 2015 nuclear deal, fewer people - 7 in 10 - said they favored a deal.
