Seyed Mousavian – Media Pundit? Iranian Official?

It was to be expected: the comeback of nuclear negotiations with Iran was bound to lead to a simultaneous media comeback of Seyed Mousavian (as well as NIAC head Trita Parsi, but never mind). Indeed, he’s been pretty busy lately.

In the past this blog devoted quite a bit of attention to Mousavian’s insider/outsider ploy. To be frank, it’s our impression that the media on the whole prefers to benefit from the game rather than expose it. Sigh, we tried.

But that doesn’t mean we’re ready to ignore what’s going on. For example: while Mousavian’s a close associate of President Hassan Rouhani – and probably has been floating his ideas since Iranian elections – Al-Monitor has no problem describing him as “a research scholar at Princeton,” and under that category run a regular string of his opeds – such as this one, pre-deal, in which he castigates the French.

The list of media platforms granted to Mousavian goes on and on, from the Financial Times to the Frankfurter Allgemeine to the Russian propaganda outlet RT (which was at least honest in describing him as “an Iranian policy maker”).

We don’t think there’s any doubt about Mousavian’s ongoing connections with the senior hierarchy in Tehran, even if it’s more implicit than explicit (except when it comes to the very blunt regime opposition groups).

Anyway, we’re not looking to delegitimize any one from public debate, only reminding the media not to skip the background check – just as we learned way back when in journalism school. What’s wrong with that?

Looking for some background checks for next time? Start with our previous posts, to be found here and here.

About IranMediaFocus

Blogging & updating on #Iran related news- focusing on Politics, Human Rights & the Iranian nuclear Program. Followed by top Middle East Analysts, Reportes & think tanks.