During negotiations between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2015 over Tehran’s nuclear program, Ali Vaez, a mediator, emailed Iran’s foreign minister, and told him that “as an Iranian, based on my national and patriotic duty, I have not hesitated to help you in any way,” according to The New York Times.

News reports stated that Vaez was recruited by the Iran Experts Initiative (IEI), set up by the Iranian regime, to promote its interests in the United States, and he was later denied a security clearance to serve the Biden administration, though he denies having worked for the Iranian regime. Robert Malley, for whom Vaez worked under at the International Crisis Group, was previously under an FBI investigation for allegedly mishandling classified documents and that probe of his allegedly mishandling classified information was subsequently closed.

On August 5, Vaez was the guest on a segment for the CBC radio program The Current, “Are the U.S. and Iran in a forever war?” (listen by clicking here) where guest host Loren McGinnis introduced him simply as “deputy program director for Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group and was a mediator during the negotiations for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal,” and made zero mention of his controversies or the very serious allegations that have been leveled against him.

Click below to listen to the audio:

CBC is entitled to present Vaez’s perspective. The failure, however, is in omitting any information that would give listeners a full picture of who he is, and whether his analysis can be considered truly independent of the Iranian regime given the allegations against him.

Indeed, over the course of the interview, Vaez portrayed the Islamic Republic of Iran as the true victim, telling listeners that “if you’re Iran and you’ve been attacked twice in less than a year by two nuclear powers, a global military superpower and a global intelligence superpower, Israel, you don’t want to become another Lebanon or another Gaza in which every few months, uh as if there’s a calendar reminder, the US and Israel will bomb you.”

What Vaez conveniently forgot to add is that Iran’s fanatical regime is hardly the passive recipient in the region. For decades, it has actively financed, armed and trained an array of Islamist terrorist proxies, including Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah, who have waged war on Israel and American interests throughout the Middle East and even beyond.

Incredibly, this selective retelling on Vaez’s part received no challenge from McGinnis, who ought to have reminded listeners that Iran’s leaders have long publicly declared that their regime seeks the complete destruction of Israel, and that most Israelis killed in war and terrorism since the 1979 Islamic Revolution has been at the hands of an Iranian-backed proxy.

Less than three months earlier, Vaez was also a guest on The Current, where he spoke with host Matt Galloway, who complimented him, saying that his analysis was “helpful in just understanding a situation that is so confusing and complicated.”

During that interview, Vaez’s comments in our view once again echoed pro-Iranian propaganda, claiming that strikes against the Islamic Republic represented “wars of aggression,” and made little mention of Tehran’s longstanding support for terrorist proxy groups or its openly-stated goal to annihilate Israel. In that interview, as well, Galloway failed to inform listeners about allegations of inappropriate ties between Vaez and Iran.

In our estimation, CBC’s The Current has now twice given Vaez a prominent platform to present views appearing to be consistent with Iran’s regime, all while failing to mention significant allegations surrounding his alleged ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran.