Biden’s suspended Iran envoy lands gig at Princeton

A senior diplomat who led the Biden administration’s negotiations with Iran before having his security clearance suspended and being placed on unpaid leave has landed an Ivy League teaching job.

Robert Malley, who served as the State Department’s special envoy for Iran from January 2021 until he was placed on leave at the end of June, is joining Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs as a visiting professor and lecturer.

“While I am on leave from the State Department, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with the next generation of public servants,” Malley said in a statement released by the university on Tuesday.

“I look forward to my time at Princeton and returning to government service in due course.”

Malley had been a top negotiator of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, which provided Tehran with sanctions relief in exchange for temporary restrictions on its nuclear program.

Then-President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the agreement in 2018, but the Biden White House has sought to resurrect a version of the deal.

“Rob Malley’s significant diplomatic experience and interactions with multiple presidential administrations will be of enormous value to our students,” SPIA Dean Amaney Jamal said. “I am very happy to welcome him to the School and look forward to his contributions.”

The hiring of Malley was panned as “pitiful” by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a Princeton alum.

“Rob Malley was such a pro-Iran radical that he was FIRED from Biden admin & had his security clearance stripped for ‘mishandling classified docs’ (the details are still hidden),” Cruz tweeted.

Congressional Republicans have demanded additional information about why Malley was placed on leave.

“I have been informed that my security clearance is under review,” Malley said at the time of his leave. “I have not been provided any further information, but I expect the investigation to be resolved favorably and soon.”

At Princeton, Malley will teach a graduate-level course on foreign policy decision-making in the fall semester, and up to two undergraduate courses in the spring “focused on some combination of diplomacy, negotiation, and foreign policy,” according to the university.