Dear Minister Baerbock, 

since the violent death of the 22-year-old Iranian Jina Mahsa Amini by the "morality police" and the resulting courageous protests, as well as their brutal suppression by the Iranian regime, the foreign policy of Western countries has come more into the focus of the Iranian community worldwide.

In this context, the cooperation of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the think tank CARPO e.V. is causing great resentment among Iranians beyond Germany. The co-founder and managing director of CARPO e.V. is none other than Adnan Tabatabai, whose father "Sadegh Tabatabai" was an extremely close confidant of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He was part of Khomeini's entourage when he returned to Iran from his Paris exile on an Air France plane on Feb. 01, 1979 to found the Islamic Republic. According to Wikipedia, "By his own admission, Tabatabai was one of eight people in Europe and America who prepared the revolution abroad and kept in touch with Khomeini." His sister was married to Khomeini's son, now deceased, and his uncle Musa Al-Sadr was one of Khomeini's favorite students. Sadegh Tabatabai was a government spokesman, secretary of state, minister and special ambassador of Iran to Germany. Thus, from the beginning, Sadegh Tabatabai was instrumental in transforming Iran into a brutal totalitarian theocracy. This family closeness of the Tabatabais to the Mullah regime still exists and influences their actions considerably.

Adnan Tabatabai, with his think-tank CARPO e.V. and in his function as Iran advisor to the Foreign Ministry, as well as Iran expert, consistently promotes understanding for the Islamic Republic in newspapers, on radio and television and always warns against foreign interference in brutal crackdowns on protests. He tries to portray the Islamic republic as progressive or capable of reform. He has currently downplayed the recent demonstrations and the Islamic Republic's inhumane response several times in interviews. Moreover, in a CNN interview, he put the throttling of the Internet into perspective, claiming that a great deal of "fake news" is spread on social media. Thus, he gives the impression that this process even has a positive side effect. He skillfully conceals the fact that the Iranian power apparatus thereby suppresses protests and cuts off the flow of information about the crimes committed, both domestically and abroad. In 2016, he took to Twitter to defend Berlin's anti-Semitic Al-Quds Day. Moreover, he has already adopted IRGC (Revolutionary Guards) narratives on Twitter a few times - such as after the Ukrainian passenger plane was shot down - and later deleted those tweets.

We are well aware that Mr. Tabatabai has a solid, if tendentious, expertise on Iran affairs due to his education. In any case, it should not remain hidden that Mr. Tabatabai adopts certain narratives of the Iranian leadership and the Revolutionary Guards and spreads them in Europe. In addition, we consistently miss a condemnation of the gross human rights violations in the context of current events in Iran. Mr. Tabatabai always predicts what the Iranian leadership will do, using phrases like, "Unfortunately, we have to assume that the security forces will get the protests under control again and that the demonstrators will soon disappear from the streets. In the course of this, a great deal of violence must be expected," but does not condemn with a single word the violence, abduction, unprovoked arrest, rape and murder of demonstrators by the regime's henchmen. A person who advises the German Foreign Ministry must not remain silent about human rights violations for personal reasons.

CARPO e.V. currently receives 900,000 EUR in funding from the German Foreign Office and has already received more than 290,000 EUR in taxpayer funds in the past. We are fully aware that these grants have flowed to CARPO e.V. after careful review. 

It is simply disconcerting that an association whose managing director has this extreme personal closeness and interconnectedness to the Islamic Republic and is simply silent in all interviews about human rights violations of the Iranian leadership, advises the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding its Iran policy. We therefore demand that you no longer consult CARPO e.V. and in particular its managing director Mr. Adnan Tabatabai in matters directly or indirectly concerning Iran. Unfortunately, there is far too much bias here.

Please distance yourself from Mr. Adnan Tabatabai as an advisor to your Ministry!

With best regards

The Munich Circle