After Controversy, Iranian Specialist Mousavian Retires From SPIA Post

Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist in Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security, retired on June 1 after 15 years at the University. His departure comes following pressure from a nonprofit that opposes the Iranian regime and a November 2023 investigation by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which alleged that Mousavian used his academic role to advance Iranian interests.

Mousavian, who joined Princeton in 2009, wrote on X that the decision to retire was his own. “I am deeply grateful to the university officials for their support and especially for their commitment to ‘freedom of expression,’” he wrote in the Aug. 10 post. Princeton announced his departure in a list of employee retirements on June 4.

Before coming to Princeton, Mousavian was a prominent figure in Iranian politics. From 1990 to 1997, he served as the Iranian ambassador to Germany. From 1997 to 2005, he headed the Foreign Relations Committee of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran. From 2005 to 2007, he served as the foreign policy adviser to Ali Larijani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.

In 2007, Mousavian was arrested after then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused him of leaking information to European members of the 2003-05 nuclear negotiation team, of which he was a part. Mousavian has denied any wrongdoing.

The Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA), which describes itself as a coalition of former political prisoners in Iran, families of victims, human rights activists, and international jurists, said it had spent two years organizing campus events, press conferences, and congressional outreach to highlight concerns about Mousavian’s role at Princeton. The group hosted a protest on Princeton’s campus in April 2024.

Other critics echoed AAIRIA’s calls. In March 2024, the National Association of Scholars, a conservative nonprofit dedicated to reforming higher education, urged Princeton to dismiss Mousavian from his position. In April 2025, Sen. Ted Cruz ’92 told Fox News Digital that Mousavian’s presence at Princeton made students afraid for their safety and reflected a “reckless institutional ideological bias.”

In its 2023 investigation, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce sent a letter to President Christopher Eisgruber ’83, spearheaded by Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), and signed by 10 other Republican members, asking about Mousavian’s hiring and communications between him and Iranian officials.

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Following the opening of the investigation, Mousavian wrote emails to PAW in which he denied that he had been acting on behalf of Iran while at Princeton: “Over the past two decades, as an academic, I’ve used every opportunity to propose [a] peaceful solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis, and dialogue and engagement between Iran and the United States and with other countries such as Saudi Arabia. All my books, articles, speeches, and interviews during 13 years working at Princeton University are about peace, security, stability, and opposing wars and warmongering.”

The University did not respond to a request for comment. Mousavian declined a request for comment about his retirement.