Kamangir (Archer)

True Confessions

Kamangir | January 30, 2006 | Category Iran

Aiotollah Montazeri is amongst the disciples of Aiotollah Khomeini when he took over the power in 1979. He was the deputy of Khomeini for a couple of years before struggles happened and he went to exile to Najaf-Abad and then to a few other places inside Iran. Now, he is one of the hard liners in criticizing the Islamic Republic and even the supreme leader himself. In a recent interview with Newsweek, he draws a very tolerant picture of himself and tries to show how acceptable the Islamic Republic regime was decided to be (see). He blames extremists for manipulating the idea and practicing their own view, which he believes is obviously not democratic.

The interesting part of the story to me is when the reporter asks him about occupying US embassy and he replies “occupying US embassy is like occupying somewhere in the states.” He continues, “it was a wrong move, even though, I was approving of that at the time.” He then finishes by saying “with those days views, many people and also me were approving of it” (also, see this (see)).

It’s good to see how Iranian politicians start to realize and confess that they are not immune from mistake. Still, I am not sure if they would accept to be trailed for what they have done. Do you think anybody would accept arranging a court to decide about the way Iranian political prisoners were treated in the eighties?