Iran's Ayatollah Rafsanjani backs Hassan Khomeini

Ayatollah Rafsanjani at the Imam Khomeini Institute

Iran’s chairman of the Expediency Council expressed his support for Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Khomeini, and commended his efforts in preserving and publishing his grandfather’s work.

ILNA reports that Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani in a meeting with the organizers of the Institute for Compilation and Preservation of the Works of Imam Khomeini said: “Without the efforts of Ahmad and Hassan Khomeini, the work of Ayatollah Khomeini could have become object of greed and spite.”

The Institute was founded by the recommendation of Ayatollah Khomeini’s son, Ahmad Khomeini in 1989 to preserve the work and speeches of the Shiite leader and “to prevent any distortion of his thoughts and expression.”

The Chairman of the Expediency Council went on to emphasize the need to promote the interpretations of the founder of the Islamic Republic regarding the system of the Islamic Republic, specifically, the concept of leadership through the clergy (velayat faqih).

Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani’s support of the Institute along with Hassan Khomeini is significant since both have been repeated targets of criticism and attack by the conservative faction of the Islamic Republic in the post-election events.

Hassan Khomeini stayed away from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s inauguration ceremony which was considered a clear endorsement of the disputes against Ahmadinejad’s re-election. He also was one of the first to pay a visit to Alireza Beheshti, MirHosein Mousavi’s senior aide, after he was released from prison. Beheshti was assigned by the opposition leader to lead a committee probing into wrongful treatment of protesters following the June elections.

Hassan Khomeini’s visit with Beheshti was another gesture which the establishment regards as an affront to its policies.

In December, the representative of Ayatollah Khamenei in the Revolutionary Guards, hardline cleric Ali Saidi attacked Hassan Khomeini and declared that his actions have posited him against the “regime and the leadership.”