Far-left billionaire George Soros has funneled more than $50 million to a network of pro-Iran groups whose members have gained significant influence within the Biden White House, pushing to lift US sanctions on Tehran while advocating for a renewed nuclear deal.
Further examination of Soros’s Open Society Foundations records shows that the progressive kingmaker has donated a staggering $46.7 million since 2016 to the International Crisis Group, a left-wing think tank linked to an alleged Iranian plot. to manipulate American politics.
Robert Malley, the former US special envoy to Iran now under investigation by the FBI for his alleged mishandling of classified material, was president of the ICG until he joined the Biden administration in 2021.
“Soros has continually funded organizations that act as apologists for the Iranian regime, downplaying its serious human rights abuses while working to promote Iranian propaganda,” Gabriel Noronha of the National Security think tank Polaris told The Post.
Soros’s cash financed the formation of the ICG in 1994, and the billionaire was a trustee for years before handing the seat to his son and ideological heir Alexander Soros, 38, in 2018.
Far-left billionaire George Soros has pumped millions of dollars into pro-Iran influence groups that “weaken the United States,” critics say. AFP via Getty Images Robert Malley, now under FBI investigation for alleged mishandling of government secrets while serving as Biden’s envoy to Iran, got millions in aid from Soros when he ran the International Crisis Group think tank. AFP via Getty Images Ali Vaez, a Malley protégé at ICG and a member of the Iran Experts Initiative, noted meetings at the White House with senior Biden national security officials. fake images
Three of Malley’s protégés were part of the Iran Experts Initiative, a covert network of Iranian-American academics established by Iran’s Foreign Ministry in 2014, according to Semafor.
Over the past decade, IEI participants have worked their way into Washington’s foreign policy establishment, while subtly persuading American policymakers to ease sanctions against Tehran and accede to its nuclear ambitions.
“If you were a regime that implemented an action plan to subvert the US political system from within, this would be perfect,” Noronha said.
- Malley hired IEI participant Ariane Tabatabai as his top aide when Biden tapped him to lead the U.S. team tasked with negotiating a new nuclear deal with Tehran. Tabatabai then moved to a senior position at the Pentagon with a higher security clearance, where he remains, drawing the ire of Republicans.
- Ali Vaez, another IEI member and currently Iran project director at the ICG, reportedly sent some of his writings to Iranian officials for review prior to publication. Vaez has held five meetings at the White House with Biden’s top national security officials, visitor records show.
- Malley hired Dina Esfandiary, a third member of the IEI, as a senior advisor to the ICG. In 2021, she and Vaez co-authored an essay celebrating the election of Iran’s hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, as “a real opportunity to advance nuclear talks.”
Malley’s appointment in 2021 coincided with the administration’s U-turn on former President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” sanctions on Iranian oil exports. Biden’s lax enforcement of the law has reportedly netted the mullahs an estimated $95 billion.
Iran’s hardline president Ebrahim Raisi was praised by IEI members Ali Vaez and Dina Esfandiary. POOL/AFP via Getty Images The Iranian regime displayed its Sejjil missiles in Tehran in 2017, part of its developing nuclear weapons program. AP
In February 2023, Vaez scored two lengthy one-on-one meetings with Brett McGurk, Biden’s Middle East and North Africa coordinator, as McGurk secretly negotiated with his Iranian counterpart to restart nuclear talks.
Shortly after, the administration made a controversial deal to release $6 billion of frozen Iranian funds in exchange for five American hostages.
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Meanwhile, Malley’s son, Blaise Malley, 25, works for an Iran-sympathetic think tank, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, which has also enjoyed Soros’s largesse, despite a U.S. court considered its founder Trita Parsi to have been credible. accused of acting as a “regime defender” through his nonprofit National Iranian American Council, after he filed a defamation lawsuit alleging this was false.
Since 2019, Soros has given Quincy, who says he advocates “moderation” in US foreign policy, $1.8 million, plus $100,000 to Parsi’s NIAC.
“CANI and Quincy are the current Russia of the Iranian regime,” Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad wrote in 2022.
Soros money has also indirectly reached Iran apologists through leftist groups such as the Plowshares Fund and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
In 2021, for example, when OSF gave Plowshares $300,000, Plowshares in turn donated $225,000 ($75,000 each) to ICG, NIAC Action, and the Quincy Institute.
This year, Plowshares awarded Vaez a direct grant for an unspecified amount.
OSF and Soros have funneled more than $15 million since 2016 to groups behind recent pro-Hamas protests in the United States, The Post reported.
Trita Parsi’s Quincy Institute and the National Iranian American Council also received grants from Soros. Getty Images Alex Soros (left) and his father George have pumped millions of dollars into Iran apologist groups, critics say. Via REUTERS
“We value the donations we receive from across the political spectrum and have always been transparent about that support on our website,” said Jessica Rosenblum of the Quincy Institute.
“These groups are committed to promoting both international and regional peace and security,” an OSF spokesperson said. “None have ever worked on behalf of the government of the Islamic Republic.”
“I don’t know what Soros’ view is regarding Iran,” Noronha said. “But the things they routinely fund are things that weaken the United States, both internally and externally.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn