A prominent think tank in Germany has canceled a talk by a well-known advocate for Iranian regime interests in Washington, D.C., following vocal pushback from human rights activists in the Iranian diaspora.
The German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) pulled the plug on a February 17 talk by Trita Parsi on Friday. Parsi, who corresponded with Iranian officials intent on undermining sanctions against Tehran, serves as the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, a well-known think tank that agitates for Iranian and Qatari interests in the U.S.
It is scandalous that an institute supported by the [German] federal government is offering the top mullah lobbyist, Trita Parsi, a propaganda stage in Berlin [. . .] to promote an appeasement policy with the antisemitic terrorist regime in Iran.
Prior to his work at the Quincy Institute, which he founded, Parsi served as head of the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC), which lobbied against sanctions targeting Iran’s nuclear program. In 2012, US District Court for the District of Columbia determined Parsi’s work for NIAC was “not inconsistent with the idea that he was first and foremost an advocate for the regime.”
Parsi was slated to speak in Berlin alongside other experts including Gregory Bledjian, the head of the Middle East division at the German Federal Foreign Office, at an event titled “Security for the Middle East in a World of Competing Global Orders.”
Response to FWI Inquiry
The decision came after Focus on Western Islamism (FWI) had queried GIGA, among other things, about Quincy’s 2021 decision to publish an article by former UN official Scott Ritter, who was convicted in 2011 of engaging in sexual conduct online with a police officer posing as an underage girl. Ritter has also been condemned for stoking anti-Israel conspiracy theories for his energetic support of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“Security Reasons”
Eckart Woertz, GIGA’s director of Middle East Studies, stated in a February 7 email; “The event will not take place for security reasons. The event was not about Scott Ritter but about a report of the Quincy Institute. [. . .] This event was about the MENA in general and not about Iran, but things like Iran, Israel, Palestine, Turkey, etc. in fact much of the Middle East is increasingly difficult to discuss in public these days.”
Woertz added: “Protests against the program have forced us to postpone, as we feel unable to guarantee the security of the event and panel members. We intend to discuss the pertinent topics of the report at one of our future events. We share the concerns of many protesters about the authoritarian government in Iran and its regional role, but neither the role of Iran nor any other specific country was the topic of this event. This is a very important conversation, and we look forward to having it at a later date.“
Woertz did not immediately respond to a follow-up query about the alleged security concerns.
The Opposition
GIGA’s invitation to Parsi prompted the Alliance against Mullah Appeasement and Lobbyists to schedule a protest in front of the GIGA office in Berlin and post an online petition urging GIGA to disinvite Parsi.
“Trita Parsi continues to portray the Iranian regime as a stabilizing force in the Middle East, despite its involvement in terrorism and human rights abuses, and its weakening position after military setbacks in the region and internal upheaval,” the petition states.
FWI obtained a letter sent to Woertz before the cancellation from members of the organization, Forum Woman Life Freedom Germany, criticizing GIGA for mainstreaming Parsi.
“The fight for women’s freedom of life in Iran was met with brutal repression by the Islamic Republic. Yet individuals like Trita Parsi continue to obscure the reality of the regime’s crimes, enabling further repression. Hosting such a speaker at GIGA legitimizes his points of view and provides a platform to whitewash the actions of one of the most repressive governments in the world,” wrote Forum Woman Life Freedom Germany.
The organization urged Woertz to withdraw Parsi’s invitation and host voices who “really represent the struggle of the Iranian people for freedom, democracy, and human rights.” The well-known German-Iranian dissident Behrouz Asadi, the head of the Democratic Forum of Iranians in Mainz, submitted the letter to Woertz on behalf of Forum Woman Life Freedom Germany.
When FWI questioned Woertz about the growing campaign against GIGA’s event with Parsi, he wrote that GIGA is “interested in politicians and regimes with whom we do not necessarily agree, and to this end we interact with individuals and institutions whose views we do not necessarily share. This is an inherent part of freedom of opinion and academic freedom.”
When asked if GIGA agreed with the U.S. State Department’s classification of Iran’s regime as a state sponsor of terrorism, Woertz declined to comment. However, he did state that “I dislike Saddam Hussein and the IRI regime as well, we probably can agree on this, if not on the debate climate.” Republican and Democratic administrations have designated the clerical regime as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Woertz added, “GIGA is jointly funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (Ministry of Science, Research, Equalities, and Districts), and the other federal states,” adding, “Third-party funding from competitive procedures accounts for approximately 25 percent of our total annual budget of currently 13 million euros.” GIGA is considered a public charity in the Federal Republic.
The German Foreign Ministry did not immediately return FWI press queries.A spokesperson for city of Hamburg said it forwarded FWI’s press query to the Ministry of Science, Research, Equalities and Districts.
“It is scandalous that an institute supported by the federal government is offering the top mullah lobbyist, Trita Parsi, a propaganda stage in Berlin on February 17, 2025, to promote an appeasement policy with the antisemitic terrorist regime in Iran,” Kazem Moussavi told FWI. “As spokesman for the opposition Green Party of Iran in Germany, I call on the Foreign Office and Annalena Baerbock [Germany’s Green Party foreign minister] to ensure that GIGA immediately withdraws Trita Parsi’s invitation.”
Embarrassment for Quincy Institute
The cancellation of Parsi’s Berlin talk is clearly an embarrassment for his employer, which has been dogged by allegations of unwholesome bias against Israel for years. The organization’s reputation is not helped by the presence of Stephen Walt on its board of directors. Walt co-authored the 2007 book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, which was roundly condemned as a shoddy and polemical text, with Benny Morris describing it in The New Republic as “a nasty piece of work.” The fact that Lawrence Wilkerson, who once blamed Israel for the Assad regime’s gas attacks on civilians in Syria as part of a ‘false-flag’ operation” previously served as a nonresident fellow for the institute is another problem for the organization.
In response to these and other scandals, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said, “ancient hate of antisemitism...festers in Washington think tanks like the Quincy Institute,” and described the institute as an “isolationist, blame-America-First money pit for so-called scholars who’ve written that American foreign policy could be fixed if only it were rid of the malign influence of Jewish money.”
The controversy is clearly an embarrassment for the German think tank as well, prompting Woertz to tell FWI that “GIGA is categorically against antisemitism and all other forms of group-based hatred, while reserving the right to criticize the foreign policy of Israel like that of any other state.”
Nevertheless, Woertz’s anger seems more directed at his critics than his erstwhile invitee. “I disapprove of the defamatory debate tactics of Mr. Moussavi and others” he said in an email, that also complained of “the online bullying” GIGA has endured.
For his part, Parsi seems to be keeping mum, declining to answer multiple FWI press queries.
