US Senator Tom Cotton on Wednesday called on the FBI and Defense Department to investigate what he called an Iranian campaign to influence US policy, branding it a serious national security concern.
The Arkansas Republican cited a joint investigation by Semafor and Iran International into the Iran Expert Initiative (IEI), an effort by Tehran's foreign ministry to cultivate ties with academics and think tank analysts to advance the Islamic Republic’s interests.
Cotton's letter focused on Ariane Tabatabai, a former aide to former US Special Envoy for Iran, Robert Malley. Her next post was as Pentagon Chief of Staff for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict.
Cotton said in his letter that Tabatabai “is still working with the US intelligence community.”
"Tabatabai and other IEI affiliates should not have been in a position to influence US policy decisions and access our nation's most sensitive intelligence," Cotton wrote.
"While the Biden administration ignored repeated calls from Republicans to remove officials affiliated with IEI and the Iranian government, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Defense (DoD) should now correct this mistake."
It was not clear what spurred the senator, an outspoken Iran hawk, to issue the call.
"I urge the FBI and DoD to review this matter thoroughly for counterintelligence concerns and potential criminality, given that national security information may have been provided to a foreign government," Cotton continued.
He also called on the FBI and Pentagon to “investigate all current and former government officials affiliated with IEl and take appropriate actions to ensure such officials are no longer able to assist Tehran in damaging US national security.”
Last October, The Free Press reported that Tabatabai had taken on a new role in the defense department which gave her reduced access to intelligence, according to a former Pentagon official.
The Iranian-American academic in her new role oversaw force education and training within the defense secretary's office.
It is not clear if Tabatabai is still working in the same position under the Trump administration.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly faulted his predecessors for perceived policy failings on Iran but has not explicitly alighted on the IEI in his criticisms.
Fellow Republican lawmakers have cast Iran as an implacable enemy after a justice department indictment sealed last year accused the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of a plot to assassinate Trump - charges Tehran denies.
Larijani, a former parliament speaker and veteran nuclear negotiator, was appointed last month to lead the powerful body in charge of key security decisions, where he also holds a parallel role as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's personal representative.
His mandate places him at the center of Tehran’s decision-making apparatus following a 12-day war with Israel in June, and his comments marked the most dovish yet on renewing US diplomacy by a top security official since the conflict.
“The path for negotiations with the US is not closed; yet these are the Americans who only pay lip service to talks and do not come to the table — and they wrongfully blame Iran for it,” Larijani wrote on X, posting on behalf of the council.
"WE INDEED PURSUE RATIONAL NEGOTIATIONS. By raising unrealizable issues such as missile restrictions, they set a path which negates any talks."
Speaking separately to Iranian media managers, Larijani dismissed Western demands that Iran scale back its missile program as unacceptable.
“The enemy says we must back down from our missile capability. Which honorable Iranian today would want to hand over his weapon to the enemy?” he said. “We also see negotiations as the path to resolving the nuclear issue. But by raising issues such as missiles, (it shows) they don’t want talks to take shape.”
His remarks underscore Tehran’s refusal to link missiles to nuclear diplomacy. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) restricted Iran’s nuclear program but did not directly address missiles. However, UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the deal, included language urging restraint on missile development.
Larijani argued that Washington is using the missile issue to derail diplomacy.
“At present, the Americans do not want to negotiate. After all, the war broke out at a time when we were in the middle of negotiations,” he said, referring to the recent 12-day war with Israel.
Larijani's comments come amid escalating nuclear tensions. Britain, France and Germany — the E3 — have triggered the UN’s “snapback” mechanism under Resolution 2231, seeking to restore pre-2015 sanctions over what they call Iran’s serious non-compliance.
Tehran, backed by Russia and China, has rejected the move as null and void. Iranian lawmakers have even threatened to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if sanctions are reimposed.
The SNSC chief’s statement on Tuesday called restrictions on Iran’s missile program “unrealizable,” signaling that while Tehran insists negotiations remain possible, it will not make concessions on what it considers a core pillar of its defense doctrine.
The sanctions target Waleed Khaled Hameed al-Samarra’i, based in the United Arab Emirates, along with his firms Babylon Navigation DMCC and Galaxy Oil FZ LLC, and nine Liberia-flagged tankers.
Washington said the network covertly blended Iranian and Iraqi oil through ship-to-ship transfers in the Persian Gulf and in Iraqi ports, marketing it as solely Iraqi in origin.
The Treasury estimated the operation generated about $300 million annually for both Iran and al-Samarra’i.
It accused the group of using shell companies in the Marshall Islands to obscure ownership of vessels and employing tactics such as night transfers and location spoofing to hide activity.
“Iraq cannot become a safe haven for terrorists, which is why the United States is working to counter Iran’s influence in the country,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
“By targeting Iran’s oil revenue stream, Treasury will further degrade the regime’s ability to carry out attacks against the United States and its allies.”
The measures follow sanctions announced in July against another network accused of blending Iranian and Iraqi oil.
For two consecutive years, Chinese records show imports of “Iraqi” oil exceeding Iraq’s declared shipments by around 100,000 barrels per day—worth more than $2.5 billion annually.
The gap has grown since 2021, suggesting a persistent pattern of disguised flows, according to experts.
Iraq’s oil minister Hayyan Abdul-Ghani acknowledged earlier this year that Iranian tankers were using forged Iraqi documents and said the matter had been reported to the United States.
