Ariane Tabatabai (Persian: آرین طباطبایی) is an Iranian-American scholar of political science, writer, and senior policy advisor to the United States Department of Defense.^[1][2] She is a graduate of King's College London and the daughter of Javad Tabatabai, an Iranian philosopher and professor at the University of Tehran.^[3] Tabatabai is also a former researcher of "RAND Corporation" think tank,^[2][4] curriculum director and associate professor of security studies at Georgetown University,^[5] an international civilian consultant for NATO,^[2] the Middle East Fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States^[6] and several other research institutes.^[2]

Tabatabai, in an article in the Foreign Policy magazine before the 2020 US presidential election, argued that Iran's economy is fragile and will be forced to negotiate, agree and make concessions, demanding that the winning US presidential candidate not return to the nuclear agreement and pressure for more points.^[7]

After the Biden administration took office in January 2021, she joined the US negotiating team in nuclear negotiations with Iran, but together with Richard Nephew, she left the team after a few months due to differences with Robert Malley, the head of the US negotiating team, and also because she believed that the US would lift too many sanctions on Iran and consequently the possible agreement would not be strong enough.^[8][9]

Controversies

After Tabatabai was appointed to her position in the US State Department, she was the target of accusations on social media.^[10] These accusations about Tabatabai, that were later substantiated, first appeared on Twitter, accusing her of surrendering to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Right-wing media, including The Washington Free Beacon and Saudi media, were the first to report on these accusations, while left-wing outlets tended to either ignore the accusations or label them as "conspiracy theories".^[11]

In September 2023, a large cache of Iranian government correspondence and emails reported for the first time by Semafor and Iran International connected Ariane with the Iran Experts Initiative, an effort initiated by senior Iranian Foreign Ministry officials to bolster Tehran's image and positions on global security issues, particularly its nuclear program. She regularly met with high ranking Iranian officials and often asked for their guidance in shaping U.S. foreign policy toward Iran. These meetings even included vows of allegiance to the Iranian government.^[12][13][14] Iran International claimed that its report was a revelation and a surprise to the Pentagon.^[15] There has also been a call for a review of her security clearance by Senator Marsha Blackburn. In October 2023, after an internal review, she retained her top-secret security clearance, as confirmed by Rheanne E. Wirkkala, an Assistant Secretary of Defense, in a letter dated October 13 to Senator Joni Ernst.^[16]

Books

• Tabatabai, A. (2020). No Conquest, No Defeat: Iran's National Security Strategy. London: Hurst & Company.^[17]
• Tabatabai, A. and Dina Esfandiary (2021). Triple-Axis: Iran's Relations with Russia and China. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.^[18]

References

External links

• Foreign Policy Research Institute
• Ariane Tabatabai on the C-SPAN Networks