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Several weeks ago a report published at the Semafor website, written by former Wall Street Journal reporter Jay Solomon, revealed that senior U.S. government officials and former top advisors were part of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s “Iran Experts Initiative.” Soloman’s article was based on materials gathered by Iran International that revealed emails showing government officials’ participation in this secret Iranian government influence scheme that may have impacted everything from sanctions relief to negotiations for a new nuclear agreement that led to the release of the $6 billion ransom payment recently made by the Biden administration. One thing is clear – Iranian influence peddlers and sympathizers, potential spies, have no place in serving in the U.S. government as they threaten our national security and that of our allies. In the face of the recent Hamas war, this could not be clearer. Gabriel Noronha, who has been working on these issues for many years, will be joining us to discuss this and related matters.

About the Speaker: Gabriel Noronha is the Executive Director of POLARIS National Security and a Fellow with JINSA’s Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy. From 2019-2021, he served as the Special Advisor for Iran at the Department of State where he coordinated policy and directed the Department’s communications and congressional affairs for Iran.

From 2017-2019, he worked as the Special Assistant to the Senate Armed Services Committee under Chairmen John McCain and Jim Inhofe, helping write and pass the annual national security legislation, the National Defense Authorization Act.

Gabriel previously worked for U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte from 2015-2016. He works on a wide range of national security and political projects. He speaks and conducts research in Spanish, Russian, and Mandarin.