"Welcome Mister Khomeini," read the unlikely sign hanging on the 12th floor of a Washington building, home to a conservative think tank hosting the Ayatollah Khomeini's grandson.
Facing journalists and re-searchers in dark suits, Hossein Khomeini, dressed in a traditional white jacket and black turban, took easily to the question-and-answer routine.
"Do you think that Iran has an atomic weapon?" asked an Iranian-American journalist in Farsi.
Khomeini's piercing eyes darkened as his eyebrow furrowed.
"I have no specific information. But it is such a troublemaker-regime that I won't be surprised. And if they don't have it now, they will have it in the future, I have no doubt about it," he said, running his finger along his beard, which is not yet as thick as his grandfather's.
He spoke softly, but still set the tone for 90 minutes of relentless criticism of the Islamic regime in his country. Hossein Khomeini, a well-educated Shiite Muslim steeped in Western philosophy, had been asked by the ayatollah to keep quiet with his ideas for a true democracy in Iran.
But after his grandfather and his uncle Ahmad died, Hossein received threats and lived in isolation in the holy city of Qom, until he decided to flee across the border with Iraq.
"Under the shah, at least, religious practice was free. Today, after the revolution, Iran is one of the worst dictatorships," he said, running his fingers along his prayer beads.
Khomeini welcomed the US-led invasion of Iraq, which he said had made it a "free country," and called on US President George W. Bush to intervene in Iran and install a "true democracy."
"Iran is intruding into Iraqi territory, and maybe it will force the United States to intervene in Iran too," said Khomeini, who has lived in Iraq for several months.
"Mr. Bush should act like Churchill when he gathered around him the British population to fight against Hitler," he said, before singing the praises of Western democracy and its "indispensable" freedoms of thought and of religion.
Another question, this time about terrorist groups backed by Iran, particularly Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.
"No Muslim should be allowed to have such activities. Unfortunately, Iran is a longtime supporter of terrorism. This regime is one of the most active supporters of terrorism," he said.
Before he left, Khomeini wished a "happy new year" to his sur-prised host.
"The Jewish New Year," explained the translator.
Khomeini left the room to a round of applause.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television