In a statement on December 9, the university said it promoted "peace, friendship, and brotherhood among nations" and slammed the U.S. decision as "hegemonic." 'High-Value Individuals' Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington who has closely monitored IRGC activity in Syria, said that, according to his database from January 2012 to December 2020, 3,059 Iranian and allied foreign fighters were killed in combat in Syria. Alfoneh says of those, only three were students or graduates of the Al-Mustafa International University -- known as Jamiat al-Mostafa University in Iran. "This indicates that Jamiat al-Mostafa has never served as the primary recruitment ground for the IRGC's war effort in Syria," he says.