A delegation from Iran's Ministry of Interior, led by the Director General of the Elections Office, has arrived in Minsk to serve as international observers for Belarus's presidential election on Sunday.
The Iranian delegation plans to visit polling stations in the capital to closely monitor the electoral process.
Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, is seeking his seventh term in office.
The election has been widely criticized by opposition figures and international observers as lacking genuine competition. Many opposition leaders are either imprisoned or in exile, leading to allegations that the election is a mere formality to extend Lukashenko's rule.
The European Parliament has denounced the election as a sham, urging the international community not to recognize its results and to support the Belarusian people's pursuit of democracy and human rights.
Iran's own electoral process has been criticized by international observers, including Freedom House, which has noted the influence of Iran's Guardian Council, an unelected body that vets candidates, as a key factor limiting the country's democratic standards.
Freedom House says of Iran's democratic process: "The Islamic Republic of Iran holds elections regularly, but they fall short of democratic standards due in part to the influence of the hard-line Guardian Council, an unelected body that disqualifies all candidates it deems insufficiently loyal to the clerical establishment. Ultimate power rests in the hands of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the unelected institutions under his control."
In 2023, a joint investigative report by Iran International and Semafor combed through thousands of emails from Iranian diplomats, revealing an Islamic Republic network of academics and think tank analysts established by the Iranian foreign ministry to extend Tehran's soft power.
Khatibzadeh, then a Berlin-based diplomat, was the one who proposed in 2014 the formation of the network - called the Iran Experts Initiative - according to the emails.
As a key member of the IPIS, he suggested to his superiors that by forming a network of Iranian analysts in “American and European think tanks”, and offering them “political support”, the Islamic Republic could promote its standpoint in the world.
Iranian former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had close ties to the IEI, delivered speeches at their gatherings, and communicated directly with some of its members.
Zarif reemerged in Iranian politics last year and was appointed Vice President for Strategic Affairs, hoping to champion new negotiations with world powers regarding Iran’s nuclear deal. Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Zarif said on Wednesday that Iran hoped U.S. President Donald Trump would choose 'rationality' in his dealings with the Islamic Republic.
Khatibzadeh previously served as Iran's foreign ministry spokesman and ambassador to Croatia. His appointment as the head of the IPIS could provide significant firepower to the Zarif's campaign.
"Khatibzadeh played a role in the crafting of the "Iran Experts Initiative," which was used as a malign influence operation by the regime during the JCPOA negotiations in 2013-15. His appointment signals a likely return of similar efforts during the Trump era," said Jason Brodsky, the policy director of the US-based advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI).
The mastermind
Iranian foreign ministry emails showed that Khatibzadeh was the mastermind behind the formation of the IEI.
He wrote in an email on March 5, 2014 to Majid Takht-Ravanchi, one of the leading Iranian nuclear negotiators, and Mostafa Zahrani, the then head of the IPIS in Tehran: “This initiative which we call ‘Iran Experts Initiative (IEI)’ is consisted of a core group of 6-10 distinguished second-generation Iranians who have established affiliation with the leading international think-tanks and academic institutions, mainly in Europe and the US.”
On April 14, 2015, Khatibzadeh emailed Zahrani a list of articles and interviews that members of the IEI had published in support of Iran's stance in nuclear negotiations, including Ali Vaez, Ariane Tabatabai, Dina Esfandiary, Ellie Geranmayeh, Adnan Tabatabai, and Rouzbeh Parsi.
Khatibzadeh outlined his accomplishments in an email in 2016, emphasizing his endeavors to “build a network and … engage with think tanks, with a clear focus on the nuclear negotiations to advance Iran's foreign policy, at the highest level” and to “publish dozens of articles in line with” Iran’s foreign policy.
The Iran Experts Initiative (IEI) was “one of the fundamental initiatives of the IPIS”, according to Zahrani. Now, the entity will be run by Khatibzadeh, the mastermind of the Islamic Republic's efforts to influence US foreign policy.
Tabatabai's case
Iran International's 2023 revelations sparked widespread controversy in US political circles, particularly regarding Ariane Tabatabai, a former key aide to former US Special Envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, whose own ties to Tehran were later detailed in a February 2024 investigation by Iran International.
In 2023, Tabatabai was serving as the Pentagon Chief of Staff for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict and retained her role and security clearance despite the revelations.
The report prompted multiple congressional investigations, with Republicans raising concerns about her ability to obtain a top-secret security clearance. The Pentagon and State Department said there was nothing in Tabatabai’s background that would have disqualified her from accessing classified information.
In October 2024, she took on a new role in the defense department, which gave her reduced access to intelligence. The Iranian-American academic started overseeing force education and training within former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's office.
She left the role this month, according to her LinkedIn profile.
