You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Khomeini's Grandson 'leaves Iran to avoid presidential inauguration'
2009-07-23
The grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, father of Iran's Islamic revolution, is reported to have left the country to avoid attending Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidential inauguration. Hassan Khomeini, a supporter of the defeated reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has travelled to an unnamed "neighbouring country" to escape official pressure to be present at next month's swearing-in ceremony, according to the pro-reformist news website, Salaamnews.

His absence would be a blow to the authorities' hopes of using the hallowed Khomeini family name to confer legitimacy on the event in the face of allegations that Ahmadinejad owes his re-election to fraud.

Hassan — a member of the pro-reformist Association of Combatant Clerics — is the most well-known and politically active of Khomeini's surviving descendants. He has previously been attacked by hardliners for his moderate views and for an allegedly opulent lifestyle.

Last year, a pro-Ahmadinejad website accused him of indulging in steam baths and driving a BMW after he publicly urged military groups to stay out of politics.

His father, Ahmad Khomeini, was one of the late ayatollah's closest aides but died in mysterious circumstances in 1995. Rumours circulated that he was poisoned after falling foul of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the then president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, although the official cause of death was a heart attack.
Wasn't the thorium-flavored shrimp?
Other members of the Khomeini clan have also fallen from official favour in recent years. Another grandson, Ali Eshraghi, also a reformist, was barred from the candidates' list for last year's parliamentary elections by the guardian council, although he was later re-instated. Hossein Khomeini, Hassan's cousin, is a political outcast after repeatedly expressing pro-American views and calling for the regime's overthrow.
Posted by:Steve White

#5  Easy with the DUKE SUCKS there Old Spook. Nothing but a friendly rivalry. Now if you want to talk about Maryland, I could not agree more. (Hey, I don't even hate the Tar Heels. Don't care for them much, but I don't hate em.)
Posted by: remoteman   2009-07-23 17:05  

#4  So Fredo is spending a little time with the Molinari family on the coast?
Posted by: regular joe   2009-07-23 16:39  

#3  Association of Combatant Clerics

Not retired army chaplains?
Posted by: Steve White   2009-07-23 12:10  

#2  Association of Combatant Clerics

So are they like the Muslim version of the Shaolin guys?
Posted by: tu3031   2009-07-23 11:14  

#1  The Association of Combatant Clerics... the ACC?

Go Demon Deacons, DUKE SUCKS! (Same for the Tar Holes)
Posted by: OldSpook   2009-07-23 01:11  

00:00