Standing in military fatigues beside the IRGC logo, this is the “Iran expert” who caused outrage on the BBC last week with a rant about “chosen people” who believe they “have exceptional rights to the whole region”.

Posted on social media in 2019 by Iranian academic and BBC pundit Seyed Mohammad Marandi, the caption reads: “This photo was proudly taken... when I was a 16 year old volunteer fighting the US backed invasion of Iran.”

That unit was the 27th army of Muhammad Rasulullah, an IRGC division that has been described as “notoriously ideological” and was set up by Commander Ahmad Motevaselian, one of the founders of the terror group Hezbollah.

The picture raises serious questions about how the BBC, Sky and Channel 4 — all of whom used Marandi as a pundit — vet “experts” before broadcasting their views into millions of households.
Marandi has been promoting Hezbollah and its incendiary narrative about Israel on BBC, Sky and Channel 4 widely since Israel went to war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
 

But the regime affiliations of Marandi – who caused outrage earlier this month following a BBC interview in which he launched into an uninterrupted rant about “chosen people” who believe they “have exceptional rights to the whole region” – go further than volunteering in the 1980s to fight for the IRGC, the military and ideological custodian of the 1979 revolution.

Marandi, now a professor of English Literature and Orientalism, also advised a nuclear negotiations team that reported to late president Sayyid Ebrahim Raisi – widely held responsible for the mass-murder of thousands of Iranian dissidents in the 1980s.

Marandi’s close links to the top of the Iranian dictatorship also come via his family – his father, Alireza, is Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s personal doctor.

In an echo of Iranian regime rhetoric, Marandi also celebrated the Hamas terror attacks, writing on social media on October 7 2023: “It's been a great and historic day. Israel can't even defeat the besieged Gazans. How can the regime even contemplate confrontation with Hezbollah, let alone the Islamic Republic of Iran? It's time for colonisers to go back to their homes in Europe and North America.”

Campaigners and politicians are now asking whether the broadcasters knew about Marandi’s ideological and military background or whether there were vetting failures. 

The BBC and Channel 4 have referred to Marandi’s links to the Iranian government and role on Iran’s nuclear team in 2015 – when the regime had a more “moderate” president, Hassan Rouhani – during interviews.

But he is usually introduced as an academic at the University of Tehran, and his links to the very extreme wing of the regime – the Raisi government, the ayatollah and the IRGC – have been omitted.

Seyed Mohammad Marandi of Tehran University reappears on the BBC after sparking outrage in the Jewish community that morning (Photo: BBC News)

Marandi has used his platform to promote Hezbollah, a proscribed terrorist group – which he described as “heroes” in a Channel 4 interview earlier this month – and make extreme statements about Israel, which he has accused of carrying out a “Holocaust” in BBC and Sky interviews.

Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC Research at United Against Nuclear Iran, told the JC: “Marandi is one of the Iranian regime’s main propagandists. He is the son of the supreme leader’s personal doctor, served in the IRGC – the regime’s terror arm which created Hezbollah – and was even an adviser to the nuclear team under former president and hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi. Despite this, Western outlets – like the BBC, Sky News and Channel 4 – frequently invite Marandi without disclosing his troubling CV to their audiences, referring to Marandi as simply an ‘Iranian academic’. For an outlet like the BBC, which claims to take impartiality very seriously, the failure to disclose Marandi’s deep affiliation with the regime is a major oversight.”

Seyed Mohammad Marandi told Sky News that Israel was committing a Holocaust in Gaza (Photo: Sky News)

Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said it was “astonishing that either the BBC failed to do its due diligence or did, and decided hosted him regardless”.

Lord Austin, who sits as a life peer in the House of Lords, told the JC: “It’s either further evidence of the BBC’s bias against Israel or a newsroom team which is out of control and whose editorial checks are in disarray.”

Marandi’s remarks to the BBC Today programme about the “chosen people” came a day after leading Jewish organisations united to condemn the BBC over its “institutional hostility” to Israel following a report on corporation bias by its former director of television, Danny Cohen.

The review called for an independent inquiry into its coverage of the Middle Eastern conflict.

The BBC sparked further outrage on October 4 for broadcasting more than 40 minutes of Ayatollah Khamenei’s speech in Tehran, during which the supreme leader praised Hamas’s October 7 attack as “legal and logical”.

In a September 2022 article in Farsi on the Iranian Students’ News Agency website, Marandi is referred to as “the adviser of Iran’s negotiating team in the Vienna”. The article quotes a post by Marandi saying that President Raisi’s government “has taken measures to fight corruption and strengthen social justice.”

Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May, gained the nickname the “Butcher of Tehran” after overseeing the mass executions of more than 5,000 political prisoners in 1988.

In his October 1 appearance on the Today programme with presenter Mishal Husain, Marandi said: “Just as the UK supports this Holocaust in Gaza... we have no doubt they will be with the Israelis until the very last Palestinian.

“They are the chosen people, they are your allies.. It’s an expansionist regime, it believes in ethno-supremacism, it believes they are the chosen people, [that] they have exceptional rights to the whole region.”

Husain did not intervene as he made those statements and instead close the conversation by saying “thank you”.

The interview prompted outrage from the Board of Deputies, the Jewish leadership Council and community figures including Simon Schama and Simon Sebag Montefiore. The BBC said in response to complaints that Marandi should have been challenged on those comments.

A spokesperson for CAA said: “When a guest is spewing putrid rhetoric that invokes Holocaust comparisons, the normal thing to do is to challenge them. At the BBC, the normal thing to do is to thank them for coming on the programme. This is a disgrace.”

Lord Austin said: “Marandi is an Iranian regime stooge with close links to the Supreme Leader, the country’s dictator, so for the BBC to allow him on to spew racist poison, unchallenged, is appalling.”

Of Marandi’s appearance on the Today programme, a BBC spokesperson said: “The Today programme covered the latest developments in Lebanon and the Middle East and interviewed a range of people including IDF spokesperson Lt Col Peter Lerner, US Diplomat Dennis Ross and Iranian academic Mohammad Marandi to get a broad perspective on the complex politics of the region.

“Mohammed Marandi was interviewed to gain an understanding of the view from Iran, and what their response is likely to be. This was a live interview and he was challenged during the course of the interview, and the Israeli position was reflected. However, we accept we should have continued to challenge his language throughout the interview.”

On the issue of due diligence, a BBC spokesperson said: “Professor Marandi was interviewed as someone with an insight into the thinking of the Iranian leadership. He was introduced as having advised the government during its nuclear negotiations in 2015. We believe this was an appropriate level of detail in the context, indicating his closeness to the regime.”

On Today, Husain described Marandi as a professor and noted his role as an adviser to the Iranian government during the 2015 nuclear negotiations in Vienna. But later that day, he was introduced on BBC News only as a university professor. Channel 4 has on one occasion noted that Marandi is “close to the Iranian regime”, while in an interview with Sky News on October 2, he was simply called a professor at the University of Tehran. 

A Channel 4 News spokesperson said: “Channel 4 News has reported on the latest developments in the Middle East independently and in line with its principles of fairness, accuracy, and due impartiality. During extensive daily output, the programme has featured contributors from across the region, giving context to audiences, and hearing their perspectives on the expanding conflict. This includes Mohammed Marandi alongside former Israeli National Security Advisor Major General Yaakov Amidror, Lebanese Health Minister Dr Firass Abiad and Richard Haas, a representative from the Council on Foreign Relation in this one bulletin alone. The programme described Mr Marandi’s proximity to the Iranian regime when introducing this interview.”

Marandi and Sky were contacted for comment.

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