Uh oh. If you’re a political scientist who is on the Iran Government payroll, you should tell others who is paying your salary. Otherwise you probably won’t be a supposedly unbiased commentator again or teach again at a college. The other really interesting thing here is that the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of NY has emails from the defendant, Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, one of which is to Foreign Minister Javad Zarif himself about these payments. See “Political Scientist Author Charged With Acting As An Unregistered Agent Of The Iranian Government,” Press Release, Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs, Tuesday, January 19, 2021. The FM will, as is his practice, describe the email as a fabrication. See also “Political scientist accused of secretly working for Iran,” Alanna Durkin Richer, AP, January 19, 2021. This story reminds other political scientists about objectivity and openness and bias.
Not “in the news” today, but I’m posting this in the news section because it just came out, and is part of the long-standing historically unjustified position of the IRI to this day. See “The Iran Coup That Never Dies,” RayTakeyh, Orbis, Winter Issue 2021, released January 19, 2021. Here is the “Abstract: The 1953 coup in Iran that toppled the nationalist Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq stands as one of the most controversial episodes of the Cold War. It is often referred to as the original sin where U.S. meddling poisoned relations between the two sides and even made the Islamist revolution of 1979 possible. But recent evidence suggests that America’s role in the coup was a minor one and the key actors determining the course of events were the Iranians themselves. It was Iranian generals, clerics and everyday citizens who put an end to Mossadeq’s premiership. All the Western lamentations aside, this was very much an Iranian affair.” See https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0030438720300697 for the article.
Iran leads the world by far in dues owed to the United Nations. Diplomats who attend Iran-sponsored seminars and events in NYC need to remember this (peer pressure can have some affect). Iran by far tops the list and needs to pay over $16 million. See “UN chief says 9 African nations, Iran in arrears on UN dues,” Everything Lubbock, January 18, 2021.
And then they lost their vote. “The UN charter calls for such a voting rights suspension for countries whose arrears equal or surpass the amount of the contributions due from them to UN coffers in the previous two years” See “Iran, six other nations lose right to vote in UNGA over unpaid dues,” Business Standard, January 19, 2021. Note the article records that Iran could not prove to the UN that it was incapable of paying, and that Iran’s blaming U.S. sanctions for blocking the Islamic Republic from paying its required contribution to the UN was also not convincing to the U.N. Iran has the money. “Iran, Turkey block rivals from joining U.N. disarmament talks,” Emma Farge, Reuters, January 19, 2021.
“Iran’s military kicked off a ground forces drill on Tuesday along the coast of the Gulf of Oman, state TV reported, the latest in a series of snap exercises that the country is holding amid escalating tensions over its nuclear program and Washington’s pressure campaign against Tehran. According to the report, commando units and airborne infantry were participating in the annual exercise, along with fighter jets, helicopters and military transport aircraft. Iran’s National Army chief Abdolrahim Mousavi was overseeing the drill.” Not IRGC. See “Iran Kicks Off Ground Forces Drill on Coast of Gulf of Oman,” Military.com, The Canadian Press, January 19, 2021.