Ali Safavi

Ali Safavi is a member of Iran's Parliament in Exile, National Council of Resistance of Iran, and President of the Near East Policy Research (NEPR), a consulting and policy analysis firm in Washington, DC, www.neareastpolicy.com.

A sociologist by career, Safavi studied and taught at UCLA, California State University Los Angeles and University of Michigan from 1972 until 1981.

An activist during the anti-Shah student movement in the 1970s in the US, Safavi has been involved in Iranian affairs since then and has lectured and written extensively on issues related to Iran, Iraq, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and the political process in the Middle East.

Safavi was involved in the successful legal campaign to remove the main Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), from the lists of terrorist groups in the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States.

A dozen of his articles have been published in various books and periodicals. Some of them include Who is Khatami?, Beware of Misnomers in Iran, Irans Foreign Policy Under the Clerical Regime, and Soccer Diplomacy, and "Missing the Mark on Iran."

Safavi has worked on translating and editing several books, including Enemies of the Ayatollahs (Zed Books, 2003), Crime Against Humanity (2000), Misogyny in Power (1998), Democracy Betrayed (1995), Women, Islam and Fundamentalism (1995) and Islamic Fundamentalism: The New Global Threat, (Seven Locks Press, 1993).

He has appeared on many television and radio interviews, including CNN , FOX News , MSNBC, CBS , NBC, CBC , The BBC , Sky TV, Al-Arabiya, Al-Jazeera, France's Antenne 2, France-24, ITN, BBC radio, Voice of America, Deutche Welle, and ORF of Austria.

Safavi's articles have been published in major media, including The New York Times , The Wall Street Journal , The Hill , The Botosn Herald , The Washington Times , The McClatchy Newspapers, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The International Herald Tribune, the Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, The Miami Herlad, San Fransisco Chronicle, Orange County Register and The Daily Telegraph, among others.

Safavi's older brother, Hossein, a US-educated aerospace engineer from Northrop University in California, was executed by the current Iranian regime in 1981 for his opposition to their repressive policies.

He could be reached at alisafavi@neareastpolicy.com or via Twitter @amsafavi