Ruhollah Khomeini

Thirty years ago this week hundreds of Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, touching off a hostage crisis that lasted 444 days and beginning an era of enmity between Iran and the United States that continues today. The studentsÕ action grew out of the Iranian revolution, in which supporters of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overthrow Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who had long ruled Iran. After Khomeini, revered in the Muslim world, rose to power in January 1979, he led the Iranian people into believing that the U.S. — once well liked and respected in Iran — was the ÒGreat SatanÓ and an ... Read Full Story

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A senior cleric urged Iran's factions on Friday to end post-election infighting, suggesting they should focus on trying to "export the revolution" instead. Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani's comments appeared to be an attempt to calm political tension inside Iran after its disputed election in June, which plunged the country into its deepest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution. But any reference to exporting Shi'ite Iran's revolution may stir unease in nearby Gulf Arab states, which are predominantly Sunni Muslim with Shi'ite minorities. Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini coined the phrase "exporting the revolution." Khomeini, who died in 1989, ... Read Full Story

The exiled Ayatollah Khomeini pictured during prayers at his temporary refuge at Neauphle le Chateau, 25 miles from Paris in December 1978, two months before his return home Ayatollah Khomeini arrived back home on February 1, 1979, after flying in from Paris on an Air France Boeing 747 He was greeted by jubilant crowds who numbered in their millions Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the American-backed Shah, and his wife, Farah, has already fled into exile in Marrakech, Morocco An effigy of the Shay burns as student riot in Tehran in November 1978 Demonstrators outside the US embassy in Tehran carrying sickles - the Iranian symbol ... Read Full Story

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the nations of the Middle East shared a "deep hatred" of the United States. His latest salvo against Iran's arch-foe came as US President Barack Obama arrived in Cairo to deliver a much-heralded address to the Muslim world in a bid to heal a wide breach between America and Islam. Khamenei spoke on the occasion of the 20th death anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led a revolution in 1979 that toppled the US-backed shah and established an Islamic republic. "The nations in the region hate the United States from the bottom of their hearts because ... Read Full Story

March 20 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama issued an unprecedented videotaped appeal to Iran on Friday offering a "new beginning" of diplomatic engagement to turn the page on decades of U.S. policy toward America's longtime foe. Aliakbar Javanfekr, an aide to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, responded by saying that Obama should fundamentally change Washington's policy towards Iran. Obama's appeal, timed to mark the Iranian New Year, highlighted a sharp shift of tone from former President George W. Bush's efforts to isolate the Islamic Republic, which he had labelled part of an "axis of evil". Washington and Tehran are deeply divided on many issues, including ... Read Full Story