Khomeiny ‘frightened’
NZPA-ReuterAuvers sur Oise
The severe scowl of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny hides a fragile, frightened man, crafty enough to use crisis to his advantage but too ignorant to lead Iran, the former President, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, said yesterday.
- Mr Bani-Sadr also said he had been granted official permission to emigrate to the United States but had decided to remain in exile in France because his return to power in Iran was probably only “a few weeks" away. (The State Department in Washington denied that Mr Bani-Sadr had been granted refuge in the United States and said he had not sought asylum) The picture painted by Mr
Bani-Sadr of ■ Khomeiny, Iran’s ageing. : religious; leader, is that of a weak, limited and deeply suspicious man who has become as isolated from his countrymen as his country has from the world community. “He reacts, he does not take the initiative,” Mr BaniSadr said in an interview with the Associated Press at his tightly guarded country home north of Paris. Mr Bani-Sadr was granted political exile by France after fleeing Iran on July 29. “With those he (Khomeiny) considers his enemies, his reactions are simplistic: he does exactly the opposite’of what the enemy says they want him to do,” Mr BaniSadr said. “For that reason the United States, which knows his
personality well, was able to use him for its own political goals, to isolate Iran from the rest of the world and destroy the sympathy that the revolution enjoyed in many countries at the beginning.”
The fierce look in Khomeiny’s eyes, his severe demeanour were “just for appearance. It hides many weaknesses. In private, he’s like most people. He makes little jokes, things like that. “Another major characteristic of Khomeiny stems from his ignorance in the fields of politics, economics and world, affairs,” Mr BaniSadr said.'. “He must rely on others, but he is suspicious of intellectuals and tends to make decisions, alone, deci-, sions that are simple and with a very limited scope.”
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Press, 20 August 1981, Page 6
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332Khomeiny ‘frightened’ Press, 20 August 1981, Page 6
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