After Iran Influence Report, Trust In Biden Admin ‘Crumbling’

Despite attempts by the State Department to minimize revelations about an Iranian influence operation in the US, experts say trust in the Biden administration is broken. 

State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, reiterated Monday that he does “not have any reason to believe an Iranian influence operation infiltrated the United States government,” in spite of troves of information and documents revealed in a joint investigation between Iran International and Semafor, lifting the lid on a years-long influence operation reaching the top echelons of Washington. 

Directly implicating suspended Iran envoy, Robert Malley, the investigation revealed a web of actors bolstering the regime’s reach in the corridors of the White House through thousands of emails combed through by the Iran International and Semafor team. People named in the emails have not denied the veracity of the documents.

However, Miller merely told reporters this week that the investigation is ongoing into Malley, and he would not be drawn into questions on the matter which highlighted his three aides were part of an Iranian government network. 

The investigation also brought light to the fact that the think tank, The Iran Experts Initiative (IEI), was established by the Iranian foreign ministry in 2014 to extend Tehran's under the table dealings. Its members simultaneously worked for top Western think tanks and gave advice to both the US and Europe, showing the wide reach of the regime’s ‘soft power’ project. 

There is no doubt it has left the Biden Administration in one of its foreign policy weak points since coming to power, especially after Malley was put on unpaid leave. Critics and US politicians are now watching its Iran failings unravel daily. On the back of a prisoner swap deal which saw $6bn of frozen Iranian funds freed up in exchange for five US-Iranian dual nationals, there is no way out for Biden now, whose Iran blunders continue to draw global criticism. 

Many Republicans have indicated their readiness to investigate the issue and have sharply criticized the administration. In the latest such statement, Senator Bill Hagerty wrote on X, “The existence of the Zarif-masterminded Iran Expert Initiative raises new questions about the controversial backchannel engagements of former SECSTATE John Kerry, Rob Malley and their IEI associates during the Trump years like this John Kerry held backchannel talks with Iran, Javad Zarif - Washington Times”

Iran scholar Alireza Nader, was among the many outraged by the continued denials, writing on X: “Who is [the] State Department Spokesman kidding? We can all see what’s going on here. There’s a ton of evidence showing that the Islamic Republic has an active influence/lobby operation in Washington, DC, with regime sympathizers in the US government.”

Middle East expert, Walid Phares, whose own book on influence operations and lobbying by Iran was widely discredited until the revelations this week only prove its veracity, wrote on X: “The @CrisisGroup has been portrayed as one of the most recognized and praised think tanks worldwide dealing with conflict resolution. But the shocking revelations by @semafor and #IranInternational that its "Iran project" was a base for influence operation by the Iran Regime on the US, shows how wide the reach of Iranian intelligence is in the West, and how "mainstream institutions" were/are penetrated.”

It is a huge blow to the administration, Phares adding: "Trust is crumbling," and claiming that the influence operation in the West and US is not the limits of Iran’s reach, which he says are on both sides of the Atlantic. “It is NATO wide,” he said.