Free Republic

What could have made Iran's supreme leader so visibly angry? The extraordinary photo above -- posted to the website of Iran's hard-line Fars news agency but then quickly taken down -- shows supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at center with his hand raised, extremely angry after the conclusion of the June 4 ceremony commemorating the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. During that event, hard-line supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began angrily shouting down Khomeini's grandson, Hassan -- who appears in a black turban at the top right corner of the picture -- as he delivered a speech...

The grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, father of Iran's Islamic revolution, is reported to have left the country to avoid attending Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidential inauguration. Hassan Khomeini, a supporter of the defeated reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has travelled to an unnamed "neighbouring country" to escape official pressure to be present at next month's swearing-in ceremony, according to the pro-reformist news website, Salaamnews. His absence would be a blow to the authorities' hopes of using the hallowed Khomeini family name to confer legitimacy on the event in the face of allegations that Ahmadinejad owes his re-election to fraud.

London, Aug. 16 – Iran masterminded the July 12 attack on an Israeli military squad by the Lebanese militia Hezbollah which ignited a major military offensive against the group by the Jewish state, Iran Focus has learnt. A well-placed source inside the clerical establishment told Iran Focus that prior to the start of hostilities Tehran dispatched several top officials including the chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to attend a summit in Syria which took place on July 4 and focused on ways to upset the regional balance in the Middle East. Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of...