A “scholar” who criticized Trump and advocated for a return to the nuclear deal was arrested for acting as paid Iranian agent, raising the question of whether or not the Biden administration will continue to follow his advice regarding the Iran deal.

Kaveh Afrasiabi: Harvard Scholar and Paid Agent

Kaveh Afrasiabi is many things: a frequent New York Times opinion contributor, a political scientist who has taught at Tehran University, Harvard, and other prestigious universities. He lectures and writes on Iran, Islam, ecology, Middle East, UN reform, as well as poetry and fiction. His books blame Trump for increasing the possibility of war with Iran by rejecting the nuclear deal which Afrasiabi helped create as an advisor (to Iran). He served as an advisor to the United Nations. He founded the NGO Global Interfaith Peace (GIP). 

But one achievement does not appear on his curriculum vitae: his career as a paid agent for Iran.

Last week, FBI agents arrived at his home in Watertown, Massachusetts to arrest Afrasiabi so that he can face charges in New York City federal court  for acting and conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of Iran. Authorities said Afrasiabi, an Iranian citizen and lawful permanent US resident, has been paid approximately $265,000 by Iranian diplomats assigned to the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations in New York City since at least 2007. If convicted of both charged offenses, Afrasiabi faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

“For over a decade, Kaveh Afrasiabi pitched himself to Congress, journalists, and the American public as a neutral and objective expert on Iran,’ said John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. “However, all the while, Afrasiabi was actually a secret employee of the Government of Iran and the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations (IMUN) who was being paid to spread their propaganda.”

“In doing so, he intentionally avoided registering with the Department of Justice as the Foreign Agents Registration Act required. He likewise evaded his obligation to disclose who was sponsoring his views. We now begin to hold him responsible for those deeds,’ Demers added.”

Advised Iranians to Take Revenge Against Trump

One such piece of advice he passed along to the Iranian government was intended as revenge against President Trump for ordering the drone strike that assassinated Iranian Gn. Qassem Soleimani last January. Afrasiabi told Iran’s foreign minister and permanent representative to the United Nations that an effective response would be for Iran to “end all inspections and end all information on Iran’s nuclear activities pending a [United Nations Security Council] condemnation of (the United States’) illegal crime.”

Doing so will “strike fear in the heart of enemy” and “weaken Trump and strengthen his opponents,” Afrasiabi wrote, according to court documents.

Afrasiabi is unrepentant. In a letter to Algemeiner, he denied any wrongdoing.

“I received checks from the Mission’s UN account and it never occurred to me that I was doing anything illegal,” Afrasiabi wrote in a statement to the Algemeiner. “My conscience is clear, and if the US government had an iota of sense of appreciation, they would thank me for all my tireless activities for the cause of detente, non-proliferation, human rights, inter-religious dialogue, and understanding.”

On his Facebook feed, he responded to his arrest by accusing his host country of human rights abuses.

“25 years of repression,” Afrasiabi wrote. “This is a brief chronology of the systematic and outrageous abuses of author’s human rights in the United States of America, beginning with the false arrest and imprisonment in the hands of Harvard police in 1996, continued by Cambridge police and their cronies, thus making a mockery of justice and human rights.