Word: ayatullah
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...Rubaie reinforced the Prime Minister's statement. "We can't have a memorandum of understanding with foreign forces unless it has dates and clear horizons determining the departure of foreign forces. We're unambiguously talking about their departure," he told reporters in Najaf after a meeting with the Grand Ayatullah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shi'ite religious authority. It would indeed be ironic if al-Maliki, the man Washington has supported in Baghdad, ends up being the person who tells...
...beating of the war drums over Iran may get the most attention, but there are growing signs of progress toward a possible diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff. This week, the top foreign policy adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, declared that Iran could respond favorably to the latest deal offered by Western negotiators, which he described as acceptable "in principle." It remains unclear whether the unusual declaration by Ali Akbar Velayati, who served as Iran's foreign minister from 1981 to 1997, will translate into government policy. But in New York City on Tuesday, Iran...
...Because Larijani's political comback certainly had the blessing of Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei - who wields executive power in Iran - an analyst in Tehran told TIME it signals that Khamenei, the ultimate arbiter in Iranian politics, may be prepared to sanction challenges to Ahmadinejad's reelection next year. Whether or not Larijani becomes a presidential candidate, he is likely to use his high-profile post as parliamentary speaker to question Ahmadinejad's policies and offer alternatives. That, along with Khamenei's ambivalence about Ahmadinejad's political future, could weaken the incumbent's authority and prepare the ground...
...leaders without preconditions. "He shorthanded the answer," Senator Joe Biden recently said. Ever since, Obama has been creatively fuzzy when asked directly if he would meet with Ahmadinejad - and he has begun to point out that the real leaders of Iran are the clerics led by the Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, who controls Iran's foreign policy and its nuclear program. Obama has also been explicit about the need to start with lower-level talks, a presidential summit coming only if there were progress in those negotiations. In his previous, straight-talking incarnation, McCain would have allowed Obama...
...East Pakistan seceded in a brutal civil war that saw hundreds of thousands dead. Religion, which Iqbal theorized should have no place in government, was an easy source of political legitimacy for leaders struggling to hold what was left of the fractious country together. The success of Ayatullah Khomeini's Islamic revolution in neighboring Iran eight years later launched a revival of conservative Islam, including in Pakistan. Elements of Shari'a were implemented. Iqbal's son calls it the revenge of the orthodoxy. "They were saying, 'You used Islam to carve out a state. Alright, we will make it Islamic...