The BBC was very keen to emphasise the supposed “non-partisan” nature of of Trita Parsi – who presented himself as an independent analyst in an interview about the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. In fact Parsi is a well known advocate for the Iranian regime. Parsi left his former organisation after being found by the US courts to be advocating for the Iranian regime, when he attempted to sue a blogger for saying his organisation was lobbying for Iran in America. The court found in 2012 that the work of Tritra Parsi was “not inconsistent with the idea that he was first and foremost an advocate for the [Iranian] regime.” He masquerades as a non-partisan analyst when in reality he is anti-Israel and pro-Iran…

A quick google by BBC researchers would have found this front page Washington Times article which says that analysis of “e-mails between Mr. Parsi and Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations at the time, Javad Zarif – and an internal review of the Lobbying Disclosure Act – offer evidence that the group has operated as an undeclared lobby and may be guilty of violating tax laws, the Foreign Agents Registration Act and lobbying disclosure laws.” While BBC are always keen to call out the ideological leanings of those on the right, they appear happy to introduce an apparent long-standing Iranian regime advocate as an independent analyst…