|
|
|
|
Stay In
Notice: Undefined variable: id in /home/httpd-files/bworldonline/bworldonline.com/assets/storytools.php on line 9 Notice: Undefined variable: id in /home/httpd-files/bworldonline/bworldonline.com/assets/storytools.php on line 15 Story toolsVol. XXI, No. 21 Staying InKhomeini wanted to drop Iran’s ‘Death to America’Tehran — Iran’s ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has aroused controversy after saying in a new book that revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini favored dropping the mantra of "Death to America." The revelation in the latest edition of Rafsanjani’s diaries comes amid growing strains between Tehran and Washington but also after landmark talks with US officials on security in Iraq. The slogan of "Death to America" symbolizes Iran’s enmity with the United States and is chanted by the faithful after Friday prayers and often during speeches by the Islamic republic’s top leaders. The comment comes in an entry from July 5, 1984, five years before Khomeini’s death and in the midst of the 1980-1988 war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq which cost a million lives on both sides. "Mr. Imam Moussavi, an MP from Shoushtar, also came to visit me and he suggested banning the slogans of ’Death to America’ and ’Death to the Soviet Union,’" writes Rafsanjani, who was speaker of parliament at that time. "I told him that in principle a decision had been taken and the imam [Khomeini] has approved it. "But we are waiting for the right moment." The newly published book, a copy of which was obtained by AFP on Monday, is the fifth volume in a series of memoirs by Rafsanjani detailing his life story from political activism under the shah to his work as a top Iranian leader. Always at the center of the Islamic republic’s politics, Rafsanjani served two terms as president between 1989-1997. However he was humiliatingly thrashed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential vote. The cleric now serves as head of the Expediency Council, a powerful body which mediates in disputes and acts as the advisor to Iran’s supreme leader on the strategic planning issues. A confidante of Khomeini who is nonetheless known as a pragmatist, Rafsanjani has consistently argued for moderation in Iran’s dealings with the United States. During a Friday prayer sermon this month, he said that Iran was ready for talks at "any level" with the United States, although other officials have said that the time is not ripe. — AFP |
Send story
Print story|
|
|
|
|
© 2009 BusinessWorld Publishing Corporation. |