Obama advisor on Iran worked for ‘pro-Tehran’ lobby, report says

The White House has released the names of high-ranking officials who participated in a video conference with President Obama late Tuesday. Media outlets quickly highlighted one participant Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, who apparently previously worked for an alleged pro-Iranian lobby – it is claimed.

The White House brief, which was reported on by The Daily Beast, listed Sahar Nowrouzzadeh as the National Security Council Director for Iran.

However, according to Breitbart News, she appears to be a former member of the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC), an alleged pro-Iranian government group.

The news outlet found that an individual with the same name had written publications on behalf of the organization.

The outlet also reported that a NIAC profile page from 2007 appears to show that Sahar Nowrouzzadeh is the same person who is currently the National Security Council Director for Iran. The NIAC profile page showed that she attended the same university and completed the same double major.

According to the news outlet, media critics have accused NIAC of being a lobby for the Iranian government.

Jeffrey Goldberg of the online newspaper - The Atlantic - has referred to NIAC President Trita Parsi as someone who “does a lot of leg-work for the Iranian regime.”

The Washington Post also commented on such media critics.

“It didn’t take long for conservative media outlets and Israeli press to notice that she once was at the National Iranian American Council, which those media have for years argued was a lobbying group for the Iranian government,” wrote the Washington Post.

The Washington Post adds that the NIAC insists that it is not lobby for the Iranian government and described itself as a nonprofit organization aimed at promoting Iranian-American participation in American civic and political life.

But the Washington, DC-based newspaper reported that Nowrouzzadeh had simply been an intern at the NIAC.

The paper spoke with a White House “senior administration official,” who said: “She interned at NIAC for about a year while she was in college,” before adding that there are “multiple Iran directors at the NSC.”

The White House declined to comment when contacted by Al Arabiya News.