Last week, the White House’s official rapid response account on X posted an image from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a pro-Israel think tank, along with a text falsely claiming that sanctions relief under former US President Joe Biden accelerated Tehran’s uranium enrichment.
The 2015 nuclear deal signed under President Barack Obama limits Iran’s uranium enrichment to 3.67%, far below the 90% needed to make weapons. The Iranian government accelerated its enrichment after President Donald Trump withdrew from the landmark deal in 2018.
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This shows how FDD’s talking points regarding the US-Israel war against Iran are being perceived by the Trump administration.
The organization fiercely opposes the 2015 nuclear deal and holds a carefully cultivated position in the corridors of power in Washington, DC.
Its experts appear on major U.S. news networks and are often presented as nonpartisan analysts. The report was disseminated through the U.S. Congress and White House. The company’s website clearly states that it does not accept any funding from foreign governments. And the very name, which evokes a defense of democracy, gives it an air of institutional legitimacy that few politicians publicly challenge.
But behind that image is a network of former Israeli military and intelligence officials who have spent years pushing the United States toward a confrontation with Iran.
Now, a former senior official from the organization’s lobbying arm, FDD Action, has joined President Trump’s Iran negotiation team. On Saturday, President Trump reportedly appointed Nick Stewart to the Office of the Special Envoy for Peace and added him to the U.S. negotiating team negotiating with Iran, along with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
Stewart is not a career diplomat. He serves as managing director of advocacy for FDD Action and has publicly advocated for a more aggressive stance against Iran, including military pressure. He also worked at the State Department during the first Trump administration.
FDD Action spent $150,000 lobbying the U.S. government in the first quarter of 2025 on issues including the Iran Sanctions Act, U.S. arms sales to Israel, and the U.S.-Israel Defense Partnership Act of 2025, according to federal lobbying disclosures.
According to its website, FDD Action provides lawmakers and officials with “direct support, including bill-writing assistance, private briefings, policy analysis, and training, all free of charge.”
“Our goal is simple: to ensure America’s national security leaders have the expertise and tools they need to succeed,” it says.
The appointment of an executive who previously worked for a lobbying group advocating a hard-line stance on Iran raises questions about Washington’s ability to negotiate independently, especially as pro-Israel advocacy networks gain influence within President Trump’s foreign policy circles.
What is FDD?
The origins of FDD date back to 2001. According to the Carnegie Endowment, three major pro-Israel donors founded an organization called EMET (which means “truth” in Hebrew) shortly after the start of the Second Palestinian Intifada, a large-scale uprising against Israeli occupation. The word “intifada”, which means “to shake off” in Arabic, has been considered provocative in some Western countries, including the United States.
In a tax-exempt application filed with the Internal Revenue Service, one of the founders reportedly wrote that the organization aims to “provide education to enhance the public’s understanding of the image of Israel in North America and issues affecting Israeli-Arab relations,” the Carnegie Endowment reported.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, EMET changed its name to FDD, and Iran became the organization’s center of operations for the next two decades.
In Congressional testimony during the debate over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), FDD CEO Mark Dubowitz advocated for expanded sanctions, tougher enforcement measures, and limited sanctions relief targeting organizations associated with the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Around the same time, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said FDD was providing the “intellectual firepower” behind pro-Israel advocacy efforts in Washington.
Carnegie wrote in 2011 that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobbying and campaign financing organization considered one of the most influential lobbying groups in the United States, had “access to donors,” while FDD provided “crisp talking points” delivered by “credible experts” through “congressional hearings, opinion pages, television and radio.”
Over time, the FDD helped shape how Israel’s security position entered the U.S. political mainstream, being repackaged through policy documents, Congressional testimony, sanctions proposals, television appearances, and then often resurfacing in Washington policymaking itself.
“There is no better organization to provide this kind of intellectual firepower than the little-known Foundation for Defense of Democracies,” the report added.
President Trump’s inauguration and Iran policy
During President Trump’s first presidential term from 2017 to 2021, many of FDD’s long-held positions were reflected in U.S. policy, especially after Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and launched a “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign against Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a vocal opponent of the nuclear deal, which placed limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
FDD itself later said that while senior adviser Richard Goldberg served on President Trump’s National Security Council, he helped coordinate key elements of the “maximum pressure” campaign, a broad strategy of sanctions and economic isolation aimed at paralyzing Iran’s economy and weakening its government.
Goldberg worked on Congressional sanctions efforts targeting Iran and played a role in expanding U.S.-Israel missile defense cooperation, according to his biography on FDD’s website.
Questions surrounding FDD’s relationship with Israel have been further heightened following media reports about Israel’s lobbying activities in the United States.
FDD rejects accusations that it is acting on behalf of a foreign government. Al Jazeera reached out to FDD for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Still, the organization’s own Israel Plan outlines positions that closely reflect the Israeli government’s regional worldview.
“Israel is America’s most valuable, reliable, and vulnerable ally in the Middle East,” the program states on the FDD website.
The paper claims that “the vast majority of Israel’s enemies are enemies of the United States,” particularly Iran and its allied armed groups across the region, which Tehran calls the “Axis of Resistance.”
The program also characterizes Qatar and Turkiye as “countries aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood” that promote “anti-Israel policies while waging powerful influence campaigns in Western capitals.”
Elsewhere, FDD states that its goal is to “develop policy options to address the threats facing Israel.”
Previous reporting by Slate and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace also documented FDD-sponsored visits to Israel by American academics, which critics argued promoted primarily right-wing views of Israel’s security, similar to tours sponsored by other pro-Israel advocacy groups.
Former Israeli security official from FDD
Within the FDD’s think tank arm is a dense network of former Israeli military and intelligence officials, many of whom have spent years advocating aggressive sanctions against Iran, closer strategic cooperation between the United States and Israel, and military confrontation with Tehran.
Jacob Nagel, a senior researcher at FDD, spent decades working in the Israeli military, the Ministry of Defense, and the Prime Minister’s Office. From 2016 to 2017, he served as acting chairman of Israel’s National Security Council and national security advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Nagel also led the Israeli team negotiating the Iran nuclear deal and was previously part of Israel’s signals intelligence unit, Unit 8200, which has faced criticism for its surveillance of Palestinians.
Eyal Frata, another senior international fellow at FDD, served as Israel’s national security advisor from 2021 to 2023 after a long career in Israeli intelligence.
During his tenure, Mr. Frata coordinated Israel’s national strategy toward Iran, according to his biography.
Other fellows include Jonathan Conricus, a former international spokesperson for the Israeli military who served as a longtime combatant commander in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, and retired Israeli Maj. Gen. Tal Kelman, who previously directed strategic planning for the Israeli Air Force.
The FDD’s claims of political neutrality have come under increased scrutiny because of the presence of several former Israeli security officials in an organization described in the US media as an independent American think tank.
Influence in the Trump era
FDD’s relationship with the Trump-era foreign policy world extends far beyond Stewart. President Trump’s former national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. HR McMaster, currently chairs FDD’s Center for Military and Political Power.
Matt Pottinger, Trump’s former national security adviser, is also a member of the organization, along with several former government officials involved in Iran policy.
Goldberg is one of FDD’s most prominent figures and previously served on President Trump’s National Security Council, overseeing efforts to target Iran’s weapons program. Dubowitz recently said on a podcast with Goldberg that confronting Iran is a personal mission.
“Those who know me know that I live and breathe one mission: to stop Iran’s nuclear program and end the Islamic Republic,” he said.
FDD’s CEO added that Iranian officials have accused the think tank of being “the U.S. administration’s planning and implementation arm regarding Iran policy.”
“Guilty as charged,” he replied.
These comments reflect the increasingly blurred lines between think tank advocacy, lobbying, and policymaking that have characterized FDD’s rise in Washington.
As negotiations between Washington and Tehran stall, surveillance of these crossings has increased. On Wednesday, President Trump said progress in negotiations had raised hopes of ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s essential closure of the waterway triggered a global energy crisis.
Iran sanctioned the FDD and Dubowitz in 2019, accusing them of supporting “economic terrorism” through sanctions targeting Tehran.
Stewart, who left FDD to join President Trump’s Iran negotiation team, publicly rejected the idea that Iran’s leadership could negotiate in good faith.
“It’s important to dispel that notion for people” that someone within the Iranian government could act as an “honest intermediary,” Stewart said during a panel discussion hosted by the hawkish Vandenberg Coalition in Washington, D.C., in October 2024.
He argued that even Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian should not be considered a reformer because he remains “part of the theocratic, despotic, authoritarian Iranian government.”
“We shouldn’t believe that theory, because it lets our guard down,” Stewart says.
Former U.S. Special Representative for Iran Elliott Abrams also appeared in the panel discussion. Cameron Kansarinia, an exiled rebel figure with ties to Reza Pahlavi, son of the late Shah of Iran. and Benam Ben Taleburu, FDD’s Iran expert.
In the weeks before Israel and the United States launched their attack on Iran on February 28, Mr. Stewart publicly argued that the U.S. government should take advantage of what he called a tactical victory against Tehran.
“For too long, American presidents have drawn red lines that cannot be crossed, only to watch their adversaries cross them without consequence,” Stewart wrote in January.
“The Trump administration has won tactical victory after tactical victory against Iran, killing (Iranian general and commander of the elite Quds Force) Qasem Soleimani in 2020, imposing crippling sanctions on the regime, weakening its terrorist proxy network, and attacking the heart of its nuclear infrastructure.”
“But without follow-through, these tactical victories risk being lost over time,” he added.
“The United States’ task now is to leverage these victories into decisive strategic outcomes. If ever there was a moment to impose an advantage, this is it.”
