Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz escalated his war of words with a former Iranian regime official who, as a faculty member at Princeton, was reportedly making Jewish students feel uncomfortable amid global tensions.
“I try not to be in the room with people linked to Iranian terrorists who have murdered dozens of dissidents,” Cruz wrote in response to a lengthy post on X, formerly Twitter, from former Iranian Ambassador to Germany Seyed Hossein Mousavian.
“Your books are unreadable, and the only debate you should be having is with DHS agents, at the end of which you should be deported,” Cruz quipped.
Mousavian was responding to a Fox News Digital story in which Cruz called on Princeton to fire him from his role as a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist. Mousavian had been a spokesman for Iran during nuclear negotiations in the 2000s.
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Mousavian had invited Cruz to publicly debate him so that the American people could judge the facts of the matter.
“If you do not accept this offer, I ask you to read some of the books and articles I have written over my 15 years of academic work at Princeton University,” he wrote.
“You will see that all of them focus on establishing peace between Iran and the United States, introducing a peaceful resolution of Iran’s nuclear crisis based on NPT, avoiding dragging America into another devastating war in the Middle East, promoting peace, stability, and security in the Persian Gulf, and making the Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.”
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The ex-Tehran official said he had been arrested by Iran in 2007 and forced out of the country in 2009.
Fox News Digital reached out to Cruz, Mousavian and Princeton University for comment.
Cruz further discussed the matter on his podcast “Verdict,” noting concerns about Mousavian’s influence and the safety of Jewish students.
Mousavian previously expressed support for Hamas and Hezbollah and attended the funeral of terrorist Qassem Soleimani – who had been killed in an attack ordered during President Donald Trump’s first administration.
In 2023, several top Republicans, including House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky and now-DOGE chairman Aaron Bean of Florida, wrote to Princeton with their concerns about Mousavian’s tenure.
The letter expressed how Mousavian had been the Berlin ambassador during a time when “a German court found [it] served as the headquarters for the planning of the 1992 assassination of four Iranian dissidents” at a Greek restaurant in the capital.
“Did Princeton consult with U.S. government officials regarding the hiring of Mousavian?” they asked.
Fox News Digital’s Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.
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