Al-Mustafa International University

September 18, 2024 | Emanuele Ottolenghi |

Iran Is Using Foreign Islamic Centers to Spread Terror and Hatred; the World Must Close Them

Last month, Germany announced that it would deport Mohammed Mofatteh, the former director of Hamburg’s Shi’a Islamic Center, which local authorities had ordered shut down five weeks earlier for propagating extremism, and for its financial links to Hezbollah. ...

October 31, 2023 | Emanuele Ottolenghi, Marina Rosenberg

HispanTV Is Iran’s Propaganda Arm in Latin America; Why Is It Still Being Broadcast?

On October 7, Hamas terrorists breached the Gaza security fence, entered Israel, and massacred more than 1,400 people — raping, burning, mutilating, and torturing their victims, including infants, children, pregnant women, the elderly, and disabled people. They also took more than 220 hostages back to Gaza...

June 16, 2023 | Emanuele Ottolenghi |

Tehran Takes Caracas

On Monday, Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi began a five-day tour of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, three Latin American countries governed by authoritarian, anti-Western regimes. Raisi’s three predecessors...

June 13, 2023 | |

Iran’s Raisi Embarks on Five-Day Tour of Latin American Countries

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi landed in Caracas on June 12, the first stop of a five-day visit to Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. Accompanying Raisi is a large delegation, including the Iranian ministers...

April 26, 2023 | Emanuele Ottolenghi |

What Is Venezuela Flying to Moscow?

Iran is a willing accomplice in the rape of Ukraine. Iranian drones have helped Russia sustain its terror attacks against Ukrainian civilian targets and infrastructure even as Russia’s arsenal became...

December 6, 2022 | Emanuele Ottolenghi |

Time for the Biden Administration to Clip the Wings of Iran’s Propaganda Machine

On December 8, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned Al Mustafa International University in Qom, Iran, the principal institution recruiting, indoctrinating, and training foreign converts...

May 17, 2022 | Emanuele Ottolenghi |

Murder on the Beach

Paraguay’s slain criminal prosecutor Marcelo Pecci made many enemies in his lifelong effort to protect the rule of law. One of them was Hezbollah.

April 4, 2022 | Emanuele Ottolenghi |

The Kremlin’s Latin American Echo Chamber

A trio of Spanish language media networks controlled by Iran, Russia, and Venezuela push out propaganda and disinformation to demonize the West.

March 10, 2022 | Emanuele Ottolenghi |

How Iran is Making Inroads in South America

Al Mustafa International University in Qom caters to converts in their native language. Some of them come home to run for office.

February 23, 2022 | Emanuele Ottolenghi |

Soleimani U

A new academic center in Caracas named after the Iranian mass murderer is the latest node in Tehran’s soft power network in Latin America

August 2, 2021 | Emanuele Ottolenghi |

Hangman-in-chief

Iranian presidential elections have rarely mattered. Both the past victory of the so-called reformists and now the restoration of a tailor made presidency to consolidate the regime, portray something similar...

January 25, 2021 | Emanuele Ottolenghi |

Iran Commemorates the Death of Qassem Soleimani

Pro-Iranian outlets, including affiliates of Iran’s Al-Mustafa International University, earlier this month commemorated the first anniversary of the death of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, whom...

July 7, 2020 | Mark Dubowitz, Saeed Ghasseminejad

Public Enemy: Islamic Republic’s Coronavirus Disinformation

Mark Dubowitz and Saeed Ghasseminajad of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies have done an investigation of the Iranian regime’s disinformation campaign to minimize the real impact of the coronavirus...

April 17, 2020 | Saeed Ghasseminejad, Alireza Nader

Who Runs Iran’s Propaganda Machine Abroad

In its efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the religious dictatorship in Tehran has been consistently negligent. Yet the regime has been remarkably eager to claim that it deserves immediate relief...

April 8, 2020 | Mark Dubowitz, Saeed Ghasseminejad

Tehran Can Afford to Fight COVID-19 Even Without Sanctions Relief

The Iranian government is leading an international campaign to pressure the United States to lift sanctions. American and European negotiators of the ill-fated Iran nuclear deal, along with dozens of pressure...

August 10, 2017 | Benjamin Weinthal |

German Green Party Probes Iran’s Activity Against Israel And Dissidents

The expansion of Iranian regime institutions in Germany has prompted the opening of an inquiry by the Green Party in the Bundestag on Friday to assess Tehran’s anti-Israel and espionage act...