{"id":312789,"date":"2023-10-23T19:07:44","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T18:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=312789"},"modified":"2025-09-20T16:46:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T15:46:49","slug":"who-is-vali-nasr-former-us-state-dept-advisor-on-middle-east-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/demonization-documents-statements\/who-is-vali-nasr-former-us-state-dept-advisor-on-middle-east-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Vali Nasr, Former Senior Advisor at US State Department"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Vali Nasr (left) and former Iranian regime’s nuclear chief Ali-Akbar Salehi (middle) in the Munich Security Conference 2013<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vali Nasr is an individual who has enjoyed long-standing trust and involvement within the United States government. He served on the United States Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board and held the position of senior advisor<\/a> to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, from 2009 to 2011. Currently, he is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and his foreign policy recommendations have garnered attention from numerous U.S. politicians, including Secretaries of State.<\/p>\n

However, Vali Nasr also has another side to his career, one that is often overlooked in policy circles: His secret agenda to push the talking points of Iran\u2019s regime in the U.S. Such efforts are coming under increasing scrutiny in light of the exposure of the Iran Experts Initiative (IEI)<\/a>, an effort by Iranian Foreign Ministry officials, starting in 2014, to strengthen Tehran’s global image and positions on security issues, particularly the nuclear program, by building connections with influential overseas academics and researchers, as revealed in Iranian regime\u2019s correspondence, offering insights into Tehran’s diplomatic strategies during a critical period.<\/p>\n

As the world increasingly recognizes the threat posed by the Iranian regime, and as politicians and legislators on both sides of the Atlantic raise questions about the extent to which the regime is using so-called Iranian experts to influence their policies, it’s important to delve into the mechanisms at play. While policy inclinations are often shaped independently of individual actors, there are instances where specific individuals play a key role in advancing particular agendas.<\/p>\n

In Vali Nasr’s case, some might question the hiring process by the human resources department. However, the records indicate that he was selected by certain officials within the U.S. State Department precisely due to his existing connections with high-ranking individuals in the clerical regime.<\/p>\n

Vali Nasr\u2019s background<\/h3>\n

Born on December 20, 1960, in Tehran, Vali Nasr is the son of the religion scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr. His father was a descendant of Sheikh Fazlollah Nouri<\/a>, a fundamentalist cleric who was hanged by the people in Iran on July 31, 1909, during the Constitutional Revolution, for treason and serving the repressive monarchy. In 1972, the Shah chose Vali Nasr\u2019s father, Hossein, to become the President of Aryamehr University (now Sharif University of Technology).<\/p>\n

Vali Nasr has been teaching in various prominent American universities and has published several books on Iran, the Middle East, and Islam.<\/p>\n

Vali Nasr’s views, interviews, and opinion pieces on foreign policy have been regularly translated and published on irdiplomacy.ir<\/a>, a website seemingly affiliated with the Iranian clerical regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n

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Translation of a tweet from Hasan Jaberi Ansari,<\/a> then-FM spokesperson under Hasan Rouhani: “Like other countries, Iran needs both national heroes on the battlefield, such as the martyr Commander Soleimani, and national politicians and diplomats like Mohammad Javad Zarif. While immersed in extremist dichotomies and political games played by Iran’s enemies, let us not sacrifice this undeniable historical fact and the interests of the country through our negligence”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The trusted middleman<\/h2>\n

Vali Nasr’s appointment as a prominent figure in the U.S. diplomatic sphere held particular importance for the Iranian regime. On January 20, 2009, the state-run Donyaye Eqtesad<\/a> published a news article focusing on Nasr’s new role, emphasizing his familiarity with the region and his expertise in religious matters.<\/p>\n

On May 12, 2009, the state-run Tabnak website, which is run by the former IRGC Chief Mohsen Rezaee, wrote about an official visit from Vali Nar to Tehran to discuss the release of former American hostage Roxana Saberi. The source wrote<\/a>, \u201cIt has been said that Haddad Adel and Larijani obtained the approval from senior authorities of the Iranian government for Obama’s advisor’s trip to Iran. Both of these individuals were students of the late Ayatollah Motahari and, due to their friendship with Seyyed Hossein Nasr [Vali Nasr\u2019s father], they also maintained connections with his family. Following Ayatollah Motahari’s martyrdom, they continued to keep their relationship with the Nasr family intact. Haddad Adel was a student of Dr. Hossein Nasr before the revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gholamali Hadad Adel is the father-in-law of Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the clerical dictatorship. He has held several high-ranking positions in the regime, including Speaker of the Parliament and senior advisor in Khamenei\u2019s Beyt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ali Larijani is a former IRGC commander, IRIB Chief, senior nuclear negotiator, and senior advisor to Khamenei. He has also held several other high-ranking positions in the Iranian government, including Speaker of the Parliament.<\/p>\n

On May 16, 2009, the state-run website Fararu wrote<\/a>, \u201cOf course, the topic was way more important than the subject of Roxana Saberi. They were saying that Vali Nasr, on behalf of the U.S. government, has initiated negotiations with Iran to lay the groundwork for bilateral relations on certain matters. They claim that the Iranian side in these negotiations was Gholamali Haddad-Adel, and the date of the talks began about a month ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHaddad Adel and Larijani are considered reliable and trustworthy figures for conducting negotiations from various perspectives,\u201d Fararu added. \u201cThis can be attributed to their long-standing acquaintance, especially Haddad Adel, with Seyyed Hossein Nasr [Vali Nasr\u2019s father] due to the close relationship he had with the late Motahari and the circles of religious thought. However, [Vali] Nasr is one of those individuals who have gained the trust of the Iranian side as well<\/strong>. He is a person who is close to Iran, not only due to his father’s background and intellectual and cultural personality but also because of his family and intellectual ties with revolutionary figures in Iran. <\/strong>On the other hand, he has provided consultations about Iran to the U.S. government and is officially active in the fields of Afghanistan and Pakistan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"fararu<\/p>\n

The writing was also republished by iridiplomacy<\/a>.ir on the same day.<\/p>\n

Influencing public opinion<\/h2>\n

While the public record has no access to what people like Vali Nasr have said or pushed for in governmental meetings and behind closed doors, their \u201cexpertise\u201d has been widely covered and circulated on mainstream media. With the benefit of hindsight and a comprehensive understanding of the evolving circumstances, reviewing these viewpoints can illuminate the roles played by various actors in shaping the current state of affairs and how they were guided towards the decisions they ultimately made.<\/p>\n

The available record shows Vali Nasr has written articles, commentary, and essays for the most prestigious publications on Middle East policy. In 17 different pieces<\/a> for Foreign Affairs, he discussed varying topics from the \u201crise of the Shiites\u201d in July 2006 to \u201cIran\u2019s nuclear deal\u201d in May 2023.<\/p>\n

For the Foreign Policy<\/a> Magazine, Vali Nasr has written ten essays, ranging from \u201cRamadan\u201d in June 2010 to \u201cIran nuclear talks\u201d in September 2022. He also has penned numerous other pieces for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Washington Post Opinions, The Atlantic, South China Morning Post, Agenda (World Economic Forum), The Hub (Johns Hopkins University), Channel NewsAsia, La Voz de Galicia and more.<\/p>\n

What’s intriguing about Vali Nasr’s writings is that his foreign policy recommendations and viewpoints seem to remarkably coincide with the strategic interests of the Iranian regime, which has been labeled as a terrorist regime by some.<\/p>\n

In a New York Times opinion piece<\/a> on December 13, 2004, Nasr proposed a strategy to create a rift between the ruling clerics and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He suggested that the IRGC includes reformist elements and argued that the U.S. could potentially strengthen its influence by refraining from sanctions and offering economic incentives instead.<\/p>\n

On February 23, 2006, in the wake of the tragic bombing of the Shiite holy site in Samarra<\/a>, Iraq, which was later revealed as an Iranian regime plot that successfully triggered a sectarian war resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, Vali Nasr used his platform on The New York Times<\/a> to advocate for a narrative aligned with Tehran’s objectives.<\/p>\n

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A rich, granular interview with @vali_nasr<\/a>, who recounts Kurdish leaders' gratitude for Soleimani's role in protecting Erbil and Kirkuk from the ISIS onslaught in 2014, at a precarious moment when there was no Turkish or US back-up for the peshmerga.https:\/\/t.co\/ohrgtfkdv8<\/a><\/p>\n

— Azadeh Moaveni (@AzadehMoaveni) January 3, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n