Ex-Biden Iran envoy suspended for ‘mishandling classified docs’ lands Princeton teaching gig
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 (SPIA) as a visiting professor and lecturer.
“While I am on lea𓃲ve from the State Department, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with the next generation of public servants,” Malley said in a released by the university on Tuesday.
“I look🅷 forward to my time at Princeton and returning to government service in due course.”
Ma🉐lley had been a top negotiator of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iꦜran nuclear deal, which provided Tehran with sanctions relief in exchange for temporary restrictions on its nuclear program.
President Donald Trump pull♏ed 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 s⛄aid. “I am very happy to welcom💧e 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),” .
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.
