Friday, June 03, 2016

Iran - Khomeini's Secret Deal with the US




وثائق أميركية مسربة: الخميني استرضى كيندي وكارتر

[Released] U.S. documents: Khomeini appeased Kennedy and Carter.


The Arabic article from Al-Arabiya TV العربية was published on their website, today, June 3, 2016.

It is referring to recently declassified U.S. documents that suggest an unusual background story behind the grasp of power in Iran by Ayatollah Khomeini and his seemingly unchallenged introduction of an Islamic revolution.

Detailed information is available, as well, from BBC London on one of today's news websites under the headline:

Two Weeks in January: America's secret engagement with Khomeini



Here some quotations from that article published only some hours ago:

On 27 January, 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini - founder of Iran's Islamic Republic, the man who called the United States "the Great Satan" - sent a secret message to Washington.

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In a first-person message, Khomeini told the White House not to panic at the prospect of losing a strategic ally of 37 years and assured them that he, too, would be a friend.

"You will see we are not in any particular animosity with the Americans," said Khomeini, pledging his Islamic Republic will be "a humanitarian one, which will benefit the cause of peace and tranquillity for all mankind".

Khomeini's message is part of a trove of newly declassified US government documents - diplomatic cables, policy memos, meeting records - that tell the largely unknown story of America's secret engagement with Khomeini, an enigmatic cleric who would soon inspire Islamic fundamentalism and anti-Americanism worldwide.

This story is a detailed account of how Khomeini brokered his return to Iran using a tone of deference and amenability towards the US that has never before been revealed.

The ayatollah's message was, in fact, the culmination of two weeks of direct talks between his de facto chief of staff and a representative of the US government in France - a quiet process that helped pave the way for Khomeini's safe return to Iran and rapid rise to power - and decades of high-stakes tension between Iran and America.

In the official Iranian narrative of the revolution, Khomeini bravely defied the United States and defeated "the Great Satan" in its desperate efforts to keep the Shah in power.

But the documents reveal that Khomeini was far more engaged with the US than either government has ever admitted. Far from defying America, the ayatollah courted the Carter administration, sending quiet signals that he wanted a dialogue and then portraying a potential Islamic Republic as amenable to US interests.


Khomeini had even earlier reached out to the U.S. for support when he had sent a private message to President Kennedy while being held under house arrest in Tehran in 1963.

For more information, you should read the whole story from BBC, London.

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