Make Iran Next, Says Ayatollah's Grandson
August 10, 2003
The Observer
Jamie Wilson
Sayyid Hussein Khomeini is sitting cross-legged on a sofa inside a garish palm-fringed mansion nestled on the banks of the Tigris. It is the very heart of American-occupied Baghdad, not the first place that you might look for the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini. The late Iranian leader built his Islamic revolution on a deep hatred of everything associated with the Stars and Stripes.
But then very little about the younger Khomeini is quite what might be expected.
'American liberty and freedom is the best freedom in the world,' he said, puffing on a cigarette and sipping a glass of sweet tea. 'The freedom for the individual that is written into the American Constitution you do not see in such concentration in any other constitution in the world. The Americans are here in Iraq, so freedom is here too.'
It is an extraordinary statement from a man whose grandfather labelled the US 'the Great Satan', but what Khomeini has to say about the current situation in Iran is even more radical: 'Iranians need freedom now, and if they can only achieve it with American interference I think they would welcome it. As an Iranian, I would welcome it.'
Not surprisingly, Khomeini, 45, has caused something of a stir in Baghdad, with the US media beating a path to the door of the house where he is staying.
According to his armed bodyguards, the luxurious house has been taken over by an Iraqi cleric, who shares Khomeini's view that religion and state should be separated. It used to belong to Izzat Ibrahim, vice-chairman of the deposed Revolutionary Command Council and one of Saddam Hussein's closest advisers. The King of Clubs on the list of most wanted Baathists, Ibrahim remains at large, although he is unlikely to return to evict the current tenants. There is, however, plenty to remind the visitor of the previous owner. A black Rolls-Royce with a golden grill is gathering dust in the drive, while the sitting room, with its three gold-trim sofas, is also home to a couple of enormous glass tanks containing dozens of tropical fish and several cages of canaries, chirping away merrily.
Wearing a black turban - a piece of clothing that marks him out as a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad - Khomeini dismisses as 'nonsense' a question about whether his grandfather would approve of his support for the Americans. 'He is not here, and in this case we cannot predict what position he would take,' he said.
As for Iraqi resistance to the US occupying forces - or liberators as Khomeini insists on calling them - in his opinion there is none.
'The persons who are carrying out the attacks have been paid previously to attack the US and the Americans are just in a position of defending themselves,' he said.
So what is a man whose grandfather cemented the Islamic theocracy in Iran by exploiting the 1979 US Embassy hostage crisis doing espousing views that could have come straight from an American foreign policy briefing or have been written by the press office of the Coalition Provisional Authority situated in the former presidential palace a couple of miles down the road?
Exactly how close Khomeini's ties are with the US is not clear, but the cleric has met officials from the CPA on several occasions. 'He's my favourite Khomeini!', one senior US official joked at a dinner the other night. A spokesman said that they found his ideas about the separation of religion and state 'interesting'.
Although he does not command a wide following, the very fact of who he is could in time make him a significant player, while any voice helping to dilute calls from some Iraqi Shia leaders for a system of clerical rule in Iraq will be welcomed with open arms by the Americans.
But the US might just have bigger plans for Khomeini. He spent 14 years of his life in Iraq, between 1964 and 1979, while his grandfather was plotting the Islamic revolution and conducting a campaign of snapping at the heels of the Shah from the holy city of Najaf. Listening to his grandson condemning the current situation in Tehran, it is difficult not to get a sense that perhaps history is repeating itself.
The Bush administration, which includes Iran in its diminishing axis of evil, has repeatedly accused the country of supporting terrorist groups and seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. But apart from general agreement that a change of government in Iran would be a good thing, there is no broad consensus within the administration about how best to achieve that aim. It is two years since the State Department began drafting a national security presidential directive on Iran, but the document remains unfinished.
Doves in Colin Powell's State Department are said to favour increased dialogue with potential reformers in the country, while Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon is thought to be intent on pursuing aggressive destabilisation tactics towards Tehran.
Whatever way the administration decides to play it, Khomeini could be useful to both sides.
Asked when he thought he might return to Iran, Khomeini replied 'Inshallah' - It is God's will.
But some observers might argue that it is just as likely to be the Pentagon's.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1015689,00.html