A large, long-range drone hit the center of Tel Aviv in the early hours of Friday, in an attack claimed by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia that killed one man and slightly wounding four others, the Israeli military and emergency services said.
This association with proponents of the Islamic Republic has drawn sharp criticism from Iranian-American human rights activists, who argue it betrays Baskerville's legacy of championing democratic ideals.
The Institute is dedicated to the memory of Howard Baskerville, who died supporting Iran's Constitutional Revolution in 1909.
In early May 2024, the Institute sponsored a conference at the Hilton Garden Inn Chavchavadze, titled "Building Bridges in a Divided World: Diplomacy of the Heart through Dialogue and Understanding" without publicizing it.
Yet, when journalist Karman Malekpour attended the conference, he witnessed a talk from Ahmad Shakernejad, the executive director of the Islamic Sciences and Culture Academy in Iran.
Shakernejad has a track record of praising Soleimani, who was responsible for the murders of over 600 American military personnel, according to the US government. Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed on January 3, 2020, in a targeted US drone strike near Baghdad International Airport in Iraq.
During his speech, Shakernejad also passionately praised the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, speaking in glowing and highly complimentary terms.
In 2023, the Iranian state-controlled Islamic Science and Culture Research Institute announced on its website that Shakernejad’s article, "Shahid Soleimani School and Heroic Spirituality in Religions," had won “first place in the first international conference of Shahid Soleimani School.” The article praised Soleimani, reflecting on his spiritual and heroic qualities within religious contexts.
That pro-Soleimani conference took place on February 3 in Tehran, chaired by Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Velayati, a former Iranian foreign minister, is on Interpol’s wanted list for his alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires.
There, Velayati emphasized the crucial role of scholars and experts in promoting and elaborating on Soleimani's school of thought.
According to the program of the Baskerville conference in Tbilisi obtained by Iran International, Shakernejad spoke on the topic “Spiritual Consolation before Religious Diplomacy: Finding a Way out of the War Crisis in the Middle East.”
A second Iranian participant at the Tbilisi conference, Zahra Kamali Dehghan, president of the Mehrasa organization, promoted Khamenei’s directives in the conflict against Israel.
According to a report by Iranian state-controlled Mehr News in March, Kamali stated, “About a year ago, with the goal of popularizing and attracting public participation in defending Palestine, we wrote a letter to Palestinian mothers, asking them to continue their struggle against the Zionist regime.”
“Since the Supreme Leader emphasized the continuation of intermediate movements, we decided to continue the people's connections as a prerequisite for a unified movement,” she added.
Lawdan Bazargan, the Iranian-American human rights activist who heads the Alliance Against Islamic regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA), told Iran International, “It’s ironic that with guests such as Ahmad Shakernejad, who praises mass murderers like Qasem Soleimani, the Baskerville Institute called this conference ‘Building Bridges in a Divided World.’”
“Instead of hosting conferences, this Iranian institute, with close ties to the Islamic regime of Iran, should urge this brutal regime to stop arming terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis and to cease the violent transnational repression of Iranians who are standing up against the gender apartheid Islamic government of Iran. The true path to bridging divides starts with ceasing these criminal and illegal activities,” Bazargan said.
Observers and activists have also accused Baskerville of pursuing a political direction mirroring that of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), which promotes engagement with the Islamic Republic’s rulers.
Iran International reached out to Bahman Baktiari, the Executive Director of the Baskerville Institute, who made extensive efforts to bring the Iranian delegation to the event, including personally meeting them at the Tbilisi airport, according to Malekpour who was present at the airport and has photographic evidence.
Communicating on WhatsApp, Baktiari said, “The Tbilisi conference was an interfaith conference, a friendship between religions, and had no political agenda. The presence of university professors from Tehran does not mean it was political.”
“The conference was about interfaith friendship, and professors from all regional countries were present,” Baktiari added, claiming, “We have nothing to hide.”
When asked whether he considers Soleimani a terrorist and whether Baskerville secured approval for the conference from the US State Department, Baktiari did not return follow-up WhatsApp calls, messages, or emails from Iran International.
Delara Hosseini, the Project Manager at the Baskerville Institute, also did not return phone calls or emails from Iran International.
According to the conference brochure, the following Iranians attended the event: Muhammad Taghi Eslami, Director of Ethics Research at the Islamic Sciences and Culture Academy (ISCA); Ayatollah Alavi Borujerdi; Ariobarzan Mohammadi from the University of Tehran; Mehdi F. Mehrabani from the University of Tehran; and Ashkan Taghipour, CEO of Nikgamam Jamshid Charity (Tehran), a sister organization of the US-based Moms Against Poverty.
In addition to Baskerville, the conference program listed the following organizations as sponsors: the US-based Stirling Foundation, the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, the Utah Muslim Civic League, the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha, Qatar, and the International Center for Law and Religion at Brigham Young University.
Iran International approached the sponsors of the Baskerville event for statements, but did not receive responses in time for publication.
"Some Iranian institutions, like the Baskerville Institute and Qatari centers, such as The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, use ‘cultural relativism’ as an excuse to exercise power and further their agenda of spreading Islam around the globe. It is ironic that these organizations, connected to the Islamic regime of Iran and the Qatari government, two of the least tolerant governments in the world, organize conferences titled ‘Building Bridges in a Divided World," Bazargan said.
Baktiari and the Institute he heads have also faced fierce criticism from Iranian-Americans for hosting the now-suspended Oberlin College professor, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, as part of Baskerville 2021 podcast session.
Baktiari ignored the appeals of Iranian dissidents to cancel the event featuring the Iranian government's former UN ambassador, Mahallati, despite Amnesty International's charges against him. Amnesty International accused Mahallati of covering up "crimes against humanity" in Iran, referring to the clerical regime's execution of at least 5,000 Iranian dissidents in 1988, which Mahallati allegedly whitewashed at the UN.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the University of Utah dismissed Bakhtiari, in 2011, from his post as a political scientist because a faculty panel assessed a “pattern of plagiarism” in his work.
Elika Eftekhari, a member of the US-based Alliance for Human Rights and Democracy in Iran, told Iran International, “One of the common misunderstandings that takes place with respect to Westerners involves the participation of the Islamic regime or its proxies in international conferences and various forums. In particular, nonprofit organizations, NGOs, and academics are often drawn to the belief that exposure can ameliorate extremism.”
She added, “However, the Islamic regime has proven for over 40 years that its ideology of oppression and gender apartheid remains consistent. Therefore, inviting, legitimizing, or equating the Islamic Republic with other nations facilitates more harm than good, by helping the Islamic regime maintain two faces and obscure its severe internal oppression.”
Elizabeth A. Clark from BYU’s International Center for Law and Religion was listed as a speaker at the Tbilisi conference. Clark reportedly invited Blume and refused to answer press queries from Iran International.
The Utah-based International Center for Law and Religion (Brigham Young University) was embroiled in a scandal last year for hosting a reportedly anti-Iran racist German official, Michael Blume, who termed Iranian dissidents opposed to Iran's regime "corrupt exiled nationalists." Blume is also considered antisemitic, according to two German court rulings.
BYU’s spokeswoman, Carri Jenkins, also declined to comment.
Iranian-American professor Najmedin Meshkati, from the University of Southern California’s Department of Civil/Environmental Engineering, was also listed as a speaker. He told Iran International, that he “was invited but did not attend the conference.”
According to the conference program, participants from the following countries attended: Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Qatar, Tajikistan, and the United States.
The explosion, which did not trigger air raid alarms, occurred hours after the Israeli military confirmed it had killed a senior commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon.
"An initial inquiry indicates that the explosion in Tel Aviv was caused by the falling of an aerial target, and no sirens were activated. The incident is under thorough review," the military said in a statement.
It was not clear how a relatively slow-moving drone evaded extensive Israeli air defenses. In April when Iran fired nearly 350 drones and missiles, 99% were intercepted and no real damage was reported.
Iran’s Tasnim website affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard published the news of the attack, quoting Houthi officials praising the operation, and saying the “one Zionist was killed and eight others injured.” Other Iranian government-controlled media relayed the news insisting that the Houthis were able to inflict “great damage” on Tel Aviv.
The attack on Tel Aviv is likely to fan fears about further fallout from the Gaza war, as the Houthis and other Iranian proxies side with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
It said air patrols had been increased to protect Israeli airspace but said it had not ordered new civil defence measures, however the mayor of Tel Aviv said the city, Israel's economic centre, had been moved to a state of heightened alert.
A spokesman for Yemen's Houthi militants, which like Hezbollah are backed by Iran, said the group had attacked Tel Aviv with a drone and would continue to target Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war.
In a televised speech, spokesperson Yahya Saree called Tel Aviv a primary target "within the range of our weapons".
Israel's emergency services said the body of a 50-year-old man was found in an apartment close to the explosion and said the circumstances were being investigated.
Four people were taken to hospital with slight shrapnel injuries and four others were treated for shock. All of them were later released, the hospital said.
Footage from the site showed an apparent impact on a building located close to U.S. embassy premises in Tel Aviv. Broken glass could be seen strewn across the city pavements as crowds of onlookers gathered nearby. The site was sealed off by police tape.
Israeli media said fragments from a drone of a kind widely used by Iranian-backed militia groups in the region had been recovered nearby.
Israel has been exchanging daily missile and artillery fire with Hezbollah along its northern border and in southern Lebanon since the start of the war in Gaza, prompting fears of a wider regional conflict if the situation escalates.
The Houthis have also stepped-up attacks against Israel and Western targets, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Israel invaded the Gaza Strip following an attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel in October last year.
Reporting by Reuters
