January 10-2014
. . . 3 years in US
Hossein Mousavian, a reformist active in nuclear policy who fled into US exile four years ago when hardliners went after his head, has returned to Iran.
Mousavian, a diplomat and one-time ambassador to Germany, was on Iran’s nuclear negotiating team when Hassan Rohani headed that team before the 2005 election of Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad as president. Mousavian left Tehran for Princeton University in 2009 after hard-liners accused him of espionage while in that post.
“I have returned to Iran to stay,” he was quoted as saying by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
The day before his return, Mousavian gave an interview to Al-Jazeera about his involvement in Rohani’s negotiations, saying that the reason the 2003-2005 negotiations failed was that the US refused direct talks with Iran and demanded Iran abandon all enrichment of uranium.
Antiwar.com said officials familiar with his return told it Mousavian originally planned to return right after Rohani won election in June. It said the six-month delay might mean he had some doubts about the durability of the new government in the face of hardline opposition. But with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi backing Rohani’s diplomatic efforts publicly, the hardliners have no real path to forcing a change in government.
At Princeton, where Mousavian was a research scholar in the Program on Science and Global Security, he also acted as an unofficial Iranian government representative, answering queries or commenting for international news media about the nuclear program and the prospects for improved relations between Iran and the United States. He was not an open critic of the Ahmadi-nejad Administration.
He wrote many analytical pieces in the American media. He also was able to develop a substantial Rolodex of contacts with American opinion-makers that could be useful to the Rohani Administration. But it isn’t yet known if he will have any official government position.
Mousavian’s future turned dark in 2007 when he was arrested after Ahmadi-nejad accused him of having leaked information to his European counterparts.
His case became a cause celebre with hardliners demanding his head and Reformists saying his arrest was one more example of the intolerance and untrustworthiness of the hardliners.
He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for “endangering national security” but was allowed to travel to the United States. Two former close associates, sentenced to 10-year terms on similar charges, remain in Evin Prison today.