Rouzbeh Parsi, head of the Middle East program at the Foreign Policy Institute, comments regularly in the media as an independent expert on Iran issues, and has been a leading voice on foreign policy issues. At the same time, he is linked to an impact network that was initiated by Iran’s Foreign Ministry in order to increase the country’s influence in the West. It shows leaked documents that TV4 News has taken part in.
The network, called Iranian Experts Initiative (IEI), was guided from Tehran with the former Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif at the forefront, according to leaked documents that first reached the London -based news channel Iran International.
The documents also show that Parsi participated in meetings with the network, and had contacts with involved Iranian top diplomats with close ties to Zarif, which today is Deputy Foreign Minister.
Wanted to get access
Parsi himself confirms for TV4 News that he participated in the network, but believes that the purpose was to get “access” to Iranian authorities to understand how they reasoned. He also denies that the network was initiated by Iran’s Foreign Ministry – contrary to what the email correspondence shows.
– It’s about trying to read between the lines. And in order to read between the lines, you have to meet people of all kinds, both official and unofficial persons, if they are then from Iran or Saudi Arabia or Whatever, to see what they hear, how they reason, what can be behind Formulation, says Parsi.
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Rouzbeh Parsi comments on the information on impact networks
Influence in the West
The information is based on thousands of leaked emails from Iranian top diplomats, and provides a unique insight into Iran’s work on impact campaigns. This under a special A decisive time between 2013 and 2015 when Iran negotiated with the West about its core data program.
E-mail exchanges between the officials show that Iran wanted to create a “non-state organization” consisting of influential researchers and academics in the West. It was described as one of the “most important assignments”.
The brain behind the network was the Iranian top diplomat Saeed Khatibzadeh. He, together with the veteran diplomat Mostafa Zahrani, played a central role in the formation of the network, shows the email changes. Zahrani served as the link between Foreign Minister Zarif and the experts in the network. In addition, as a member of the Revolutionary Guard and head of the Foreign Ministry’s internal think tank, he must have been crucial to support the network politically, and secure financing.
“As you promised, this initiative needs your economic as well as political support. For the first meeting, we need money to cover the costs, including tickets and hotel costs, ”Khatibzadeh wrote to Zahrani.
Parsi explains that what “very possible” could be the motives of Iranian decision makers with the group, but that the expert group’s purpose in participating in the network was something else.
– My purpose was to try to see these people who act here and now. How they reason when they are allowed to post the text. And then they may also have become a little careless, because it is not a press meeting, it is not a press release. It is that you can see it in real time, unlike when they are allowed to post the text.
– They were interested in talking and understanding things from our direction and we were interested in trying to figure out what it is they thought they were doing when negotiated, says Parsi.
First meeting in Vienna
According to the e -mail changes between the officials, Parsi accepted to join and meet the expert group. His name is mentioned and is also included on a list of IEI members. The email changes also show that the Foreign Minister was involved in the discussions about which people would be included in the network.
Parsi, who at that time was active as a researcher at Lund University, according to the documents must have attended the network’s first meeting held at the Five Star Hotel Palais Coburg in Vienna on May 14, 2014. He states that he had not informed his employer about the work on the network and about their meetings with Iranian top officials.
– There is no obligation to inform their employer about such things.
The meeting room was booked by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to the documents, which also indicates that Iran was responsible for the cost of the event room. According to the documents, the Foreign Minister, who was already in Vienna for the nuclear negotiations, will participate in the meeting and met members of the network.
– Why would I not meet other countries’ foreign ministers? The job is to figure out how they reason when making their decisions, says Parsi.
– Participating in meetings with an official person from any country does not mean accepting that person’s positions.
“Our friends”
After the first meeting, the network’s work began to spread Iran’s narrative in Western media. A search in the Media Archive shows one more than doubling the number of hits at Rouzbeh Parsi after the meeting has taken place. Something that Parsi explains with an increased interest in Iran issues during that period.
The documents show that an expert in the network discussed their texts with the Ministry before publication. Another IEI member sent an email to Zarif a week after the meeting and offered to write “ghost texts” for Iran’s Foreign Ministry. Something that the Foreign Minister agreed.
– I have not participated in any such activities, says Parsi.
On April 14, 2015, Khatibzadeh sent an e -mail containing a document with links to the group members, including Parsis, publications in Western media explaining and defending Iran’s foreign policy and nuclear energy programs. In the e -mail he calls the members “our friends”.
“I attached here for your knowledge only some of the most important works published by some of our friends,” Khatibzadeh wrote in the e -mail to Zahrani, who was forwarded to the Foreign Minister the same day.
The document contains links to several publications that Parsi has participated in, including at Swedish Radio and SVT.
“Congratulated on the agreement”
About a month after the nuclear agreement with Iran was signed, Parsi signed an email to Zahrani and thanked for the hard work, and wanted to “build on the success of the collaboration”
“Big congratulations to you and your colleagues for all the hard work to help realize the nuclear agreement!”, Skew Parsi in the email.
Parsi has also later been criticized for an overly mild attitude towards the regime in Iran. In 2022 he is deleted from the speaker list at Folk and Defense Conference following criticism from political youth associations.
As late as November 2024, Parsi defended Iran’s right to obtain nuclear weapons, claiming that the conflict with Israel could have been avoided if the country had access to nuclear weapons.
“Iran should have acquired nuclear weapons three to four years ago,” Parsi said in people and defense pod sections about Iran’s security policy ambitions.
It is unclear if the group is still active today, but the group members have continued to comment in the media, and have been active in social media. According to information to Iran International, the group was active as recently as a year ago. Parsi states that he is not part of the network today, and that he is completely free from the Iranian state.
– I am completely free from all states, which is fundamental to me.
This we know about the leaked documents
The leaked documents consist of thousands of emails between Iranian diplomats, analysts and researchers received by the Persian-language news channel Iran International. The TV channel based in London has had a forensic examination of the material to ensure authenticity. No crime has been committed in connection with the fact that the information leaked to the media.
TV4 News and the news channel’s publications are independent of each other.
Rouzbeh Parsi has participated in the email conversations with its e-mail linked to the think tank European Iran Research Group, Eirg.
Joint Comprehensive Action Plan of Action, JCPOA is an agreement that was about limiting the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for sanctions. The agreement was concluded in Vienna July 14, 2015 between Iran and P5+1 (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States – and Germany) and the EU.