The American-Iranian Council (AIC) is a charitable education group based in Princeton, New Jersey, that promotes a pro-Iranian view of American-Iranian relations. ¹ AIC’s board of directors was staffed with several prominent former United States diplomats and ambassadors as of 2025. ^{2 3} AIC has also had prominent American officials from the Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama administrations speak at its conferences and events, including then-Secretary of State Madeline Albright and then-U.S. Senator Joe Biden (D-DE). ⁴ AIC allegedly received significant funding from American oil companies that wish to conduct business in Iran. ⁵

AIC’s president Hooshang Amirahmadi was accused in the late 2000s of saying that Iran does not work with terrorist groups and denying that Hamas and Hezbollah were terrorist groups. Amirahmadi denied the claims. ⁶ Amirahmadi was also the subject of federal government surveillance regarding his alleged ties to Iran, which Amirahmadi decried as a waste of government time and resources. ^{7 8}

History

The American-Iranian Council (AIC) was founded in 1990 to promote “dialogue and understanding between the United States and Iran.” It claims to be a nonpartisan educational organization that provides research, policy analysis, public education, and community-building services. AIC claims to accept no money from any government, including the governments of Iran and the United States. AIC’s funding sources include corporations, foundations, and individuals. The organization seeks to help policymakers and citizens improve their understanding of American-Iranian relations. ⁴

Initiatives

The American-Iranian Council (AIC) maintains various initiatives and projects, including through its two major publications, AIC Insight and AIC Update. ⁹ The council also publishes various white papers and articles on its website. ¹⁰ AIC publishes its research to provide a pro-Iranian perspective on issues of American-Iranian relations. ¹¹ The council produces a pro-Iranian “Myth v. Fact” series intended to dispel what it considers to be myths about Iran. ¹²

AIC publishes Iranian news and highlights how American-Iranian relations impact various industries in the private and public sectors. ^{13 14} It also produces an interview series called “Iran Chat” that promotes conversations with Iranian experts and specialists. ¹⁵

AIC hosts conferences and meetings that seek to address questions of international relations and national security related to the United States and Iran. These conferences feature leading academic and diplomatic figures, including current and former ambassadors and politicians such as former Secretary of State Madeline Albright and future President Joe Biden. ¹⁶ During then-U.S. Senator Biden’s address at a 2002 AIC event, he praised left-wing billionaire and philanthropist George Soros’s Open Society Institute and AIC. ^{17 18}

Alleged Connections to Iran

Although the American-Iranian Council (AIC) is a charitable nonprofit organization, it has been accused of lobbying on behalf of the Iranian regime in Washington, D.C. AIC’s president and founder Hooshang Amirahmadi denied these allegations, claiming that the group does not lobby at all and is compliant with the conditions of its tax-exempt status—which, with limited exceptions, does not allow for lobbying. In 2009, Amirahmadi cited a rival Iranian advocacy and lobbying group, the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC), as an example of a group that “has a direct connection to Congress.” ¹⁹ He said that NIAC “[asks] their members or others to send their positions and views, they provide form letters and e-mails to their members [of Congress].” ¹⁹

According to a report from the Hoover Institution, NIAC’s founder Trita Parsi began his work in American-Iranian relations with AIC and received support in founding NIAC from the Iranian regime’s then-Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. A Tablet magazine article also claimed that Parsi began as the development director of AIC before founding NIAC. Tablet claimed that both AIC and NIAC are directly or indirectly influenced by Iran. ^{20 5}

Political Influence

The American-Iranian Council (AIC) takes credit for several significant developments in United States-Iranian relations. For example, in 2000, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright delivered a speech at an AIC event on Iran during which she expressed regret about a 1953 American-backed coup in Iran and other past U.S. policies toward Iran. During the speech, Albright articulated a proposal to lift sanctions on carpets and food items and offered Iran a global settlement. These policies were not adopted. ⁴

AIC claims to have facilitated proposals for greater dialogue and partnership between the U.S. Congress and Iranian Parliament that were spearheaded by future President Joe Biden and then-Senator John Kerry. AIC also helped establish meetings among then-Iranian Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi and other members of the Iranian parliament and their American counterparts in New York City in 2000. ^{21 4}

AIC was issued a license by the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to operate in Iran to promote Iran-U.S. engagement. AIC continues to seek lifting sanctions against Iran. ^{4 22 23}

During President Barack Obama’s administration, AIC led efforts to draw humanitarian attention to Iran’s civilian airline accidents as the Obama administration proposed allowing Iran a sanctions exemption to buy civilian aircraft products. This measure was a small part of the Obama administration’s broader Iran nuclear deal through which the United States allocated more than $400,000,000 to Iran. AIC supported the deal, and its president Hooshang Amirahmadi argued it was vital to American-Iranian relations. ^{24 25}

AIC “helped in the release” of Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Joshua Fattal, three American hikers who were taken hostage and accused of espionage in Iran. ²⁶

A 2014 article in The Nation listed AIC among the four top pro-Iran-diplomacy lobbies impacting policy on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The article suggested that AIC has lobbied in favor of diplomacy between the United States and Iran. The article also highlighted several donors who funded much of the anti-Iranian lobbying, including Sheldon Adelson, Paul Singer, and Bernard Marcus, each of whom donated to projects opposing a nuclear deal with Iran. ²⁷

Controversies

Alleged Defense of Terrorism

In the late 2000s, American-Iranian Council (AIC) president Hooshang Amirahmadi was accused of claiming that Iran does not work with terrorist organizations and that Hamas and Hezbollah were not terrorist organizations. Amirahmadi denied that he made such a claim and argued that the quote had been taken out of context when translated from Iranian to English. ^{6 28}

Amirahmadi stated in 2014 that “I then have condemned terrorism. I have openly said that Israel is a reality, it has a right to exist, and I have said openly that Iran has no right to build bombs.” ⁸

NSA Spying

As a result of his comments about Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and terrorism, Hooshang Amirahmadi was subject to surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during the 2000s. During the investigation, Amirahmadi’s email accounts were monitored on suspicion of his alleged ties to the Iranian regime. ^{29 7}

Amirahmadi claimed that the investigation was a waste of time and ignored real threats to American national security. He said the investigating agencies owed him an explanation and that he would have been willing to meet and discuss their suspicions. ^{8 29}

People

Founder and President

Hooshang Amirahmadi is the founder and president of the American-Iranian Council (AIC). He received a Ph.D. in planning and international development from Cornell University and is a professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. Amirahmadi is a former senior associate member at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. He has worked as director of Rutgers’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies and as chair and graduate director of his department at the Bloustein School. He is the president of Caspian Associates, Inc., and attempted to stand as a candidate for president of Iran in elections in June 2005, when he was denied the right to run by the regime’s Guardian Council, and again in 2013, when he withdrew in the expectation the Guardian Council would again forbid his candidacy. ^{30 31}

Amirahmadi is the author of several books on civil society, industrial policy, and the geopolitics of energy related to Iran, the Middle East, and the world. Amirahmadi is also the editor of 10 books on Iran and the Middle East, and 16 conference proceedings on U.S.-Iran relations. His writing on international relations and United State-Iranian relations has been widely published and he is a frequent contributor to national and international television, radio, and newspapers. Amirahmadi has also worked as a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Aga Khan Foundation, the World Bank, and several governments, law firms, and private companies throughout the world. ⁹

Board of Directors

Former U.S. Senator J. Bennett Johnston Jr. (D-LA) was the chairman of the board of directors at the American-Iranian Council (AIC) until his death in March 2025. Johnston was a Democratic politician who served as United States Senator from Louisiana from 1972 to 1997. He was a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and its chairman or ranking member for much of that time. He influenced all energy-related legislation considered by Congress between 1973 and 1996. Johnson was involved in the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, the first electricity-restructuring legislation. He also helped re-write the nuclear-licensing provisions of federal law. Johnston obtained his J.D. from Louisiana State University. He also attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in the U.S. Army. ³²

As of 2025, Robert E. Hunter was sitting on the board of directors at AIC. He is a former United States Ambassador to NATO, a post he held from 1993 to 1998. Hunter is a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He has worked as director of the Center for Transatlantic Security Studies at the National Defense University, director of West European and Middle East Affairs on the National Security Council Staff in President Jimmy Carter’s administration, and as president of the Atlantic Treaty Association headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Hunter is Chairman of the Council for the Community of Democracies, a member of the Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board, and a member of the executive committee of the board of the American Academy of Diplomacy. Hunter has written extensively on matters of national security and foreign relations and has also been a speechwriter for several U.S. Presidents and Vice Presidents. He received his B.A. from Wesleyan University and his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. ³³

In 2025, AIC had several other former United States Ambassadors and international diplomats serving on its board of directors, including former United Kingdom Ambassador to Iran Richard Dalton, Ambassador Charles W. Freeman Jr., Ambassador William Miller, Ambassador Richard B. Murphy, Former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations Giandomenico Picco, and Ambassador Charles A. Gargano. ²

Former Directors

Former U.S. Representative Donna Shalala (D-FL) was an honorary member of the American-Iranian Council’s (AIC) board of directors. Shalala is the former Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during the administration of President Bill Clinton. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2008. She has sat on the boards of Gannett Inc., Lennar Corporation, and Mednax Inc. and is the former president of the University of Miami (Florida). ³⁴

Financials

ProPublica lists 2018 as the last year the American-Iranian Council (AIC) reported its finances on the federal Form 990 tax return. In that year, AIC reported $3,174 in revenue, $50,243 in expenses, and negative total assets. ³⁵ In 2001, the first tax return ProPublica lists, AIC reported $411,626 in revenue, $381,992 in expenses, and $3,290 in net assets. ³⁶

Tablet reported that at the group’s founding, AIC received funding from oil companies that sought to do business in Iran. ⁵  

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