The Shah of Iran, the Iraqi Kurds, and the Lebanese Shia by Arash Reisinezhad

Author:Arash Reisinezhad
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

SAVAK also believed that Libya had supported the Mujahedin through Sadr.281 Despite Sadr’s denial, SAVAK did not stop accusing him of being a “godfather” of the Iranian opposition groups.

In addition to the FMI, the Mojahedin , and the Fadaiyan , Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Khomeini’s disciples had been active in Lebanon since the late 1960s. Ayatollah Khomeini’s harsh speech against the Shah, denouncing him as a “wretched, miserable man,” and the subservient bloody demonstrations of 5 June 1963 heralded the rising power of the Shia clergymen. Sadr played a key role in saving Ayatollah from execution. A year later, on 26 October 1964, Ayatollah Khomeini criticized the Shah for granting diplomatic immunity to the U.S. military personnel in Iran. This time, he was exiled to Bursa, Turkey, and then to Najaf, Iraq, where he spent more than 14 years. Shortly after Ayatollah Khomeini’s arrival at Najaf, Sadr, who saw him as Imam al-Akbar (the Greater Imam), arranged his first interview with a foreign journal. Lucien George, a Le Monde reporter who had been converted to Islam by Sadr, entered Iraq with Ghotbzadeh and interviewed him.282 Ayatollah Khomeini , in return, had a good relationship with Sadr, apparently considering Sadr as his substitute.283 According to Yazdi , Ayatollah Khomeini respected Sadr a lot.284 Conversely, Seyyed Hossein Nasr pointed to a tension between Ayatollah Khomeini and Sadr. “Sadr did not have a good relationship with [Ayatollah] Khomeini . Instead, he was close to [Ayatollah] Khoei , [Ayatollah] Khonsari , Allame Tabatabaie , and [Ayatollah] Shariatmadari .”285

In the aftermath of his exile, Ayatollah Khomeini’s ties with Sadr were monitored by SAVAK. In SAVAK’s view, Sadr-Khomeini connections could promote Shia Islamism, destabilize domestic politics and endanger Iran’s policy in Iraq and the Levant by instigating the Shia there against the Shah. Exaggerating Sadr’s role, Ambassador Qadar claimed that “even [Ayatollah] Khomeini was led by Sadr. It was Sadr who was a real theorist behind [Ayatollah] Khomeini .”286 Indeed, several elements were suspicious of the Sadr-Khomeini connections. This suspicion increased when Sadr left Tyre for Najaf to visit Ayatollah Khomeini on 6 April 1968.287 SAVAK believed that Iranian students in Western Germany (i.e., Sadegh Tabatabaie, Sadr’s nephew) as well as pro-National Front political magazines and newspapers, like Bakhtar-e Emrouz (the West Today) and Khabar-nameh Jebhe-e Melli (National Front newsletter), facilitated these connections.288 According to SAVAK, Yazdi , Chamran , and Ghotbzadeh were responsible for making connections between Ayatollah Khomeini with Sadr.289 “[Ayatollah] Khomeini’s younger son, Ahmad, came to Beirut [on behalf of his father] several times to meet with Sadr. In some of these meetings, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, Chamran , and I were there to make connections between them,” Yazdi confirmed his role in facilitating ties between Sadr and Ayatollah Khomeini .290

With the Baath Party’s growing anti-Shia repression strategy to weaken Tehran’s possible influence with the Iraqi Shia, the Shia senior clergies were pushed to leave Iraq for Lebanon. In the middle of Baghdad’s forced expulsion of a number of Iranians and Iraqis of Iranian origins from the country, Ayatollah Khomeini was invited by Sadr to move to Lebanon.

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