Khatami Does Not Have Anything to Give to Iranians

By:

JOMHOURI-E ISLAMI*

In an interview with a Dutch daily, Seyed Hossein Khomeini called for the separation of religion from politics, the conservative daily reported. According to this newspaper, which has had an interview with Seyed Hossein Khomeini in Iraq, the grandson of the founder of Islamic Republic of Iran has said the people do not trust reformists anymore while Mr. Khatami does not have anything to give to the people. This daily wrote that Seyed Hossein Khomeini has noted we expect great events in Iran. In response to whether U.S. forces would be able to bring freedom to Iran, he responded that if only Americans can bring freedom to Iran, let them do so. Seyed Hossein Khomeini, the son of Ayatollah Haj Mostafa Khomeini, supported Bani-Sadr in the early years of the Islamic Revolution. After Bani-Sadr's escape from Iran to France, he went to Qom and, on the recommendation of Imam Khomeini, he was prohibited from participating in politics. After the fall of Saddam Hossein, he went to Iraq.

I read it first at Radio Farda then in today's physical Iran News quoted above, and at nj.com.

I was surprised by the above quotes appearing in the Iranian physical newspaper, but they left some stuff out too:

The young Khomeini -- here ostensibly on a religious pilgrimage to Shi'a holy sites in Najaf, Karbala and Baghdad -- praised the U.S. takeover of Iraq.

"I see day-by-day that (Iraq) is on the path to improvement," he said. "I see that there's security, that the people are happy, that they've been released from suffering."

I'm still having trouble getting over the phrases in the same sentence! ... "... Khomeini ... praised the U.S. ..."

Original article at NRC online translation gives something like: ``Khomeini calls the religious leaders "dwarfs" who can only rule by appealing to the memory of his grandfather. He finds that Iran has become a religious dictatoship.''