Hossein Khomeini — ace or dud?

PV Vivekanand

"The Great Satan," his late grandfather called the US as he loomed into the Iranian scene as the saviour of the nation after ousting the Shah from power in 1979. "Death to America," his followers rallied to him.
"America means freedom," says his grandson today. "Iranians will welcome American intervention if that the way to freedom for themselves," he says.
The region is still reverberating from the shocking comments made this month by Hossein Khomeini, 46, the eldest grandson of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who founded the Islamic Republic of Iran after ousting the Shah.
Many see Hossein Khomeini's sudden appearance in Baghdad as a glimpse into the uncertainty of regional developments that have been brought about by the US invasion of Iraq, ouster of Saddam Hussein from power and occupation of the country.
It comes amid an American intensification of pressure against Iran, after accusing the theocratic regime there of being a destabilising factor in the region by seeking to develop nuclear weapons and supporting "terrorist" groups in Palestine and Lebanon.
It is in line with the American campaign to destabilise Iran and bring about a regime change there -- without necessarily launching an Iraq-style war -- that Washington seems to have enlisted Hossein Khomeini among others.
What is untested is the political clout of Hossein Khomeini, who carries the title of hojatoeslam -- several rungs down the ultimate Shiite rank of grand ayatollah that his grandfather occupied.
But his comments are seized by the US and other Western countries -- which do not necessarily back American designs against the regime of Khomeini's successor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- as giving a degree of legitimacy for Washington's drive against Tehran.
Not much is known about Hossein Khomeini except that he used to be a constant companion of his grandfather, including 14 years of exile in Iraq during the Shah's reign. His father, Mustafa Khomeini, was killed by agents of the Shah's dreaded Savak secret police in the 70s. That left Ahmed Khomeini as the only surviving son of Ayatollah Khomeini. Ahmed Khomenei is believed to have been poisoned to death in the bitter power struggle that followed the demise of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989.
Some Iranians content that Hossein Khomeini went against the regime that followed the death of his grandfather when it became clear that the ultimate helm of Shiites was not a hereditary affair.
Others say that Hossein Khomeini was always a liberal and had disputes with his grandfather, who once jailed him for a week.
In any event, it is now clear that Hossein Khomeini has joined the US camp - something that could make his grandfather turn in his grave -- and Washington is using him in its propaganda campaign against the Khamenei-led theocratic regime in Tehran.
He is housed in a palace on the banks of the river Tigris in Baghdad that once belonged to Saddam deputy Izzat Ibrahim Al Douri and grants interview after interview to the media. After all, the world is keen to know what had happened to the Khomeini family tree and given that the late Ayatollah Khomeini continues to the most reverred among Iranians, as well as among Iraq's Shiites, who comprise almost two-thirds of Iraq's 24 million people.
It is in the course of those interviews that Hossein Khomeini sent shockwaves through the region and indeed outside by describing the current regime in Tehran as "the worst dictatorship... worse even than the communists."
He contented that the overthrow of Saddam would allow newfound freedoms to flourish in the region and if they did not, US intervention would be welcomed by most Iranians.
He argued that Iraqi Shiites calling for an Islamist government in Iraq were misguided because the Iranian experiment had failed.
"Religion has got to be separated from regimes, such as it is in America," he said.
"Iranians insist on freedom, but they are not sure where it will come from," he said. "If it comes from inside, they will welcome it, but if it was necessary for it to come from abroad, especially from the United States, people will accept it."
The US-led Coalition Provisional Authority has confirmed that US officials had met with Hossein Khomeini because his viewpoints were interesting. Other than that, not much is known about links, if any, between the US and the man who carries the legacy of a grandfather who changed the course of history in the region 24 years ago.
Hossein Khomeini suggested that Iranian clerics from the renowned theocratic schools in the city of Qom could move to Najaf in Iraq if the United States establishes security in Iraq.
"If Qom remains under the same kind of oppressive atmosphere everyone will come to Najaf."
He called on Iraqi Shiites should overcome their historical persecution complex by pushing for a democratic government that respected their rights.
In an interview with the BBC Persian Service, Hossein Khomeini accused the regime of oppressing the Iranian people and committing human rights abuses.
He argued that Iran's reformist movement was finished and suggested that a referendum to decide how the country should be governed in the future.
He questioned the principle of velayat faqih, or Islamic jurisprudence, upon which the Iranian system is based.
According to Hossein Khomeini, if his grandfather were alive today, he would have opposed all of Iran's current leaders because of what he described as their excesses and wrongdoing.
The reformist camp in Iran is finished, he said.
People who had voted for President Mohammed Khatami in 1997 hoping things would change had seen things get worse, rather than better, in his second term of office, he said, adding that those who voted for an Islamic Republic in Iran more than 20 years ago were now in a minority.
He is vague about his political ambitions, but affirms he would like to be involved in politics.
"I would love to be effective in bringing about freedom with a movement either inside Iran or outside," he said. "I want freedom for myself and my children, whether in the leadership or a step away."
Despite his rejection of many of his grandfather's beliefs, Hossein Khomeini says he has loving memories of the man.
"He would play wonderfully with his grandsons. And he did his own housework," said Hossein Khomeini. "He didn't want people to do things for him. He was very well organised. He had hours for sleeping, hours for studying."
He said it was difficult to entirely write off his grandfather's extraordinary political career.
"He was a man of the circumstances of the time," he said. "My grandfather accomplished a big historical achievement."
He said he had slipped out of Iran in early July and now lives under risk of assassination by Iranian security agents.
"Iran has given an order that I must be assassinated by whatever means possible," he said. "Their feeling is: This man is dangerous."
Comments made by some of those who interviewed him are equally interesting:
"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?" said the Observer of London.
"Listening to his grandson condemning the current situation in Tehran, it is difficult not to get a sense that perhaps history is repeating itself," it said. "Whatever way the administration decides to play it (in Iran), Khomeini could be useful to both sides."
Thomas Friedman, who interviewed Hossein Khomeini in early August, wrote: "The best thing about being in Baghdad these days is that you just never know who's going to show up for dinner."
Friedman said he was introduced to Hossein Khomeini by "a rising progressive Iraqi Shiite cleric, Sayyid Iyad Jamaleddine, at his home on the banks of the Tigris."
Jamaleddine introduced Hossein Khomeini to Friedman, as -- and rightfully so -- "this is Sayyid Hussein Khomeini — the grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution."
Friedman wrote of Hossein Khomeini: "He has Ayatollah Khomeini's fiery eyes and steely determination, but the soul of a Muslim liberal."
The Boston Globe wrote: "Hossein Khomeini's "danger to Iran comes largely from his hugely well-known name. His father, Hojjatoleslam Ahmad Khomeini, was a leader in Iran's Islamic revolution and died in 1995. His grandfather is revered among Iranians, as well as among Iraq's Shi'ites, who constitute two-thirds of this country (Iraq)."
The Star Ledger wrote; "A longtime reformist silenced and shut out of Iran's conservative inner circle of power, (Hossein) Khomeini confined his critiques of the Islamic Republic to scholarly rather than political arguments. He said a religious government can only come once the 12th Shi'ite prophet Mahdi -- who disappeared in the 9th century -- returns."
Ibrahim Sada, editor of Egypt's second largest circulation Al Akbar daily, was harshly critical of Hossein Khomeini whom he described as an opportunist of the worst kind. Sada said the younger Khomeini was once one of the greatest supporters his grandfather and questioned why now the change of heart.
Sada presented a strong argument that by distancing himself from and even denouncing what his grandfather had advocated, Hossein Khomeini was playing into the hands of the enemies of the Tehran regime but discrediting himself because his legitimacy and status came from the Khomeini bloodline.
What the world is waiting to see is how the US would play Hossein Khomeini in its game with Iran. Would he be an ace or a dud?