Ariane Tabatabai

Tabatabai is the daughter of Javad Tabatabai, an Iranian professor of political science and law at the University of Tehran. She attended King's College London, where she earned her PhD in defence studies in 2015.{{cite web |title=Profile: Miss Ariane Tabatabai Nejad |url=https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/ariane-tabatabai-nejad |website=King's College London |access-date=23 October 2024 |location=London |language=en |date=2015}}

Starting in 2015, Tabatabai worked as a researcher for the southern California-based RAND Corporation think tank.{{cite web |url=https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/author/ari-tabatabai/ |title=Ariane Tabatabai}}{{cite web |last1=Toosi |first1=Nahal |title=Trump team scours intel sent by Iranians as it weighs new sanctions |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/03/donald-trump-sanctions-iran-074961 |publisher=Politico |access-date=23 October 2024 |date=3 December 2019 |quote=Ariane Tabatabai, an Iran specialist at the RAND Corporation...}} She was then a curriculum director and visiting associate professor of security studies at Georgetown University,{{cite web |url=https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014SxW1AAK/ariane-tabatabai |title=Georgetown University Faculty Directory}} an international civilian consultant for NATO,[https://www.nato-pa.int/node/24782 Ariane Tabatabai] and a former Middle East Fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Tabatabai wrote an article published by Foreign Policy magazine prior to the 2020 US presidential election, arguing that Iran's economy was fragile and its leaders would be forced to negotiate and make concessions; she urged the winning US presidential candidate not to return to the nuclear agreement and press for more points.{{cite web |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/15/iran-negotiations-deal-trump-biden-talks/ |title=For Iran, Negotiations Aren't Optional |date=September 15, 2020}}

After the Biden administration took office in January 2021, Robert Malley was appointed to lead U.S. nuclear negotiations with Iran, with Tabatabai appointed as a team member.{{cite web |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/time-iran-decide-whether-revive-2015-nuclear-deal-says-us-official-rcna14302 |title=U.S. Official: Time for Iran to decide whether to revive nuclear deal |publisher=NBC News}} She departed the negotiating team (along with Richard Nephew) after a few months because she believed that the U.S. would lift too many sanctions on Iran and consequently, a reinstated agreement would not be strong enough.{{cite web |url=https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2022/03/14/russia-biden-killing-iran-deal-00017113 |title=Russia may do Biden a favor by killing the Iran deal |website=Politico}}

Tabatabai is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

In September 2023, a large cache of Iranian government correspondence and emails reported for the first time by Semafor and Iran International claimed to connect Tabatabai with the Iran Experts Initiative, an effort initiated by senior Iranian Foreign Ministry officials to bolster Tehran's image and positions on global security issues.{{cite web |author= Jay Solomon |publisher= Semafor |title=Inside Iran’s influence operation |date= 26 September 2023 |url=https://www.semafor.com/article/09/25/2023/inside-irans-influence-operation |access-date=}}{{cite web |author= Bozorgmehr Sharafedin |title=Inside Tehran's Soft War |date=26 September 2023 |publisher= Iran International |url=https://content.iranintl.com/en/investigates/inside-tehran-softwar/index.html |access-date=}} In response, Senator Marsha Blackburn called for a review of her security clearance.{{cite web |title=Blackburn To DoD: Senior Official’s Iranian Ties Are Dangerous |url=https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2023/10/issues/national-security/blackburn-to-dod-senior-official-s-iranian-ties-are-dangerous |website=U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee |access-date=23 October 2024 |language=en |date=2 October 2023}}{{cite web |title=Calls Grow To Revoke Iran-Linked Pentagon Official's Clearance |url=https://www.iranintl.com/en/202310019091 |website=Iran International |access-date=23 October 2024 |language=en |date=1 October 2023}} In October 2023, after a review, Tabatabai retained her top-secret security clearance.{{cite web |title=Biden White House regularly hosted Pentagon official with ties to Iran |url=https://www.iranintl.com/en/202408123236 |website=Iran International |language=en |date=12 August 2024}} Two weeks later, the Pentagon released a statement confirming that "Dr. Tabatabai was thoroughly and properly vetted" as a condition of her employment with the Department of Defense.{{cite web |last1=Wood |first1=Graeme |title=Iran’s Influence Operation Pays Off |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/tehran-times-classified-documents-leak-investigation-robert-malley/675480/ |website=The Atlantic |access-date=23 October 2024 |language=en |date=28 September 2023 |quote=The Pentagon says that Tabatabai was “thoroughly and properly vetted” for her current job.}}

• Tabatabai, A. (2020). No Conquest, No Defeat: Iran's National Security Strategy. London: Hurst & Company.{{cite web |url=https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/no-conquest-no-defeat/ |title=No Conquest, No Defeat |publisher=Hurst Publishers}}
• Tabatabai, A. and Dina Esfandiary (2021). Triple-Axis: Iran's Relations with Russia and China. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.{{cite web |url=https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/tripleaxis-9780755640621/ |title=Triple-Axis |publisher=Bloomsbury}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.fpri.org/contributor/ariane-m-tabatabai/ Foreign Policy Research Institute]
• [https://www.c-span.org/person/?98325/ArianeMTabatabai Ariane Tabatabai] at C-SPAN
• [https://www.rand.org/pubs/authors/t/tabatabai_ariane_m.html RAND Corporation]
• {{cite web |last1=Tabatabia |first1=Ariane |title=God, Country, and the Bomb: The stretegic [sic] implications of Islamic ethical and legal-nuclear discourses |url=https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/studentTheses/god-country-and-the-bomb |website=King's College London |access-date=23 October 2024 |location=London |language=en |format=doctoral thesis |date=2015}}

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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century Iranian women scientists

Category:People from Tabriz

Category:Alumni of King's College London

Category:Stony Brook University alumni

Category:RAND Corporation people