Prominent Australian academic denies links to powerful Iranian politician | Australian foreign policy
A University of Melbourne academic has denied collaborating on research with the speaker of Iran’s parliament, who is leading Tehran’s peace talks with the US, and said he was named as an author in a journal article without his knowledge.
On Monday, Guardian Australia revealed that Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, had established extensive ties with Australia over the past decade, including links to the University of Melbourne’s engineering research centre.
In March 2023, Ghalibaf, a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander, emerged as the co-author of a journal article with University of Melbourne engineering academic Prof Abbas Rajabifard, who ran the research center that employed Ghalibaf’s son Eshagh seven years ago.
On Tuesday, Rajabifard told the Guardian he had “nothing to do with the article” and prompted the magazine to remove his name from the paper earlier this year.
The journal article was published shortly before foreign minister Penny Wong sent a letter to universities asking them to stop working with Iranian academics and institutions over concerns about the regime’s human rights record.
Rajabifard and Mohammad Ghalibaf – also a associate professor of political geography at the University of Tehran – both listed as authors in the March 2023 journal article: Explaining the Political Economy of IRI and Restructuring the Social Economy. It was published in the Iran-based Journal of Applied Researchers in Geographical Sciences, which also lists other academics at the University of Tehran as co-authors.
For more than two years, Rajabifard’s name appeared among the paper’s co-authors. on the magazine’s website And in the UN database.
However, since then the name removed from article on the magazine’s website.
In response to questions, Rajabifard said: “I have never worked with, affiliated with, or published articles with Mr. Ghalibaf or any member of the Revolutionary Guard.”
He said he was unaware that he was listed as a co-author of the study until January and “immediately wrote to the journal as a formal notification and requested that the unauthorized authorship be removed.”
“I made it clear and unequivocal that I had nothing to do with that newspaper,” Rajabifard said.
“I did not participate in the study or writing of the submission, and I was not consulted or informed by the corresponding author or any of the other listed co-authors at any stage of the research or submission process.
“I did not allow my name to appear as a co-author in this publication. As a result, my name was removed from the journal’s website in February.”
In 2016, Rajabifard was a guest at the Faculty of Geography of Tehran University, where Ghalibaf was also present. Associate professor.
Photos published on the university’s website It shows Rajabifard making a speech.
Asked about the trip, Rajabifard said that in 2016 and 2017 he “was part of the University of Melbourne delegation that visited the University of Tehran and many other universities.”
“I was invited by the Faculty of Geography to give a seminar,” Rajabifard said in his statement. “This was my only visit to that Faculty.”
Australia did not impose any sanctions on Ghalibaf, his employer (University of Tehran), or the journal’s publisher, Kharazmi University.
In Wong’s letter to the vice-chancellors and rectors of more than 30 universities in Australia in 2023, he called on them to stop joint projects with Iran.
“In line with the Australian government’s response to the human rights situation in Iran, I urge you to join the government in suspending current cooperation with Iranian institutions, including local government bodies and universities, and refraining from any new proposed initiatives,” the letter said.
Guardian Australia understands that in March federal education minister Jason Clare instructed the Department for Education to reiterate to university vice-chancellors the government’s expectations for research collaboration with other countries, including Iran.
The Guardian has previously revealed research collaborations between academics at Australian universities and researchers in Iran, including in areas the government has identified as critical technologies sensitive to national interests, such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
A spokesperson for the University of Melbourne said they would not comment on individual cases. However, the university “has been alert to the risks of external interference and is dedicating significant resources to detecting and mitigating these risks, in consultation with the government”.
The spokesman said that in recent years “mandatory Foreign Interest Disclosures have been introduced for all staff”.
A job and residence
After studying for a master’s degree in engineering at the University of Melbourne between 2015 and 2018, Eshagh Ghalibaf was granted temporary residence in Australia until September 2022.
While studying, he worked as a research assistant at the University of Melbourne’s Center for Spatial Data Infrastructures and Land Management (CSDILA) between 2016 and 2018, according to a letter tendered by a department manager during his unsuccessful five-year bid for permanent residence in Canada. That meant about seven hours of work per week during term periods, according to the documents.
Eshagh said he received this “casual job offer” from the then-“head of the infrastructure engineering department.”
“I signed 3 contracts with the university lasting 2 years,” he wrote in January 2019 as part of his application for permanent residence in Canada, adding that he was also allowed to return to Iran to work during university holidays.
The head of the department at that time was also Rajabifard. director of CSDILA.
Asked about the job offer, Rajabifard said: “University of Melbourne Privacy Policy It prevents me from confirming any details regarding past or present University staff, students, prospective students or other individuals.”
The University of Melbourne declined to comment on the job offer.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the federal government’s stance on joint research with Iranian institutions has been communicated to the higher education sector.
“The Australian government has made clear its expectation that universities not engage in, maintain or facilitate research collaboration with Iranian institutions as this would be inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy, sanctions regime or national interests,” the spokesman said.
“This includes not only formal institutional agreements but also researcher-to-researcher participation.”
