Word: ayatullah
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...unassuming Ahmadinejad, 48, defeated the wily political veteran Ayatullah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 70, who ran on a pragmatic platform that promised accommodation with the West. But Rafsanjani could not consolidate support from the country's liberal and progressive voters who were wary of his family's largely unexplained wealth and unhappy about the corruption that grew under his watch as President from 1989 to 1997. So while Iran's economically disadvantaged classes, Islamic militias and web of religious social-action groups provided Ahmadinejad with 62% of the votes, Rafsanjani could muster only 36% in a country almost evenly split...
IRAN The Shoes of the Ayatullah...
...choice came as no surprise: a longtime supporter and former student of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, 85, he has long been considered the aging Iranian leader's heir apparent. Khomeini's son Ahmed has occasionally referred to him that way, and his picture has been displayed prominently alongside that of Khomeini throughout Iran. Now Ayatullah Hussein Ali Montazeri, 62, has formally been designated by the 83-member Assembly of Experts, or senior theologians, to succeed Khomeini...
Montazeri's appointment caused some unease in Tehran's ruling circles, where there are sharp divisions on how to manage the country's stagnant economy. Montazeri is the youngest of Iran's handful of Grand Ayatullahs and has an undistinguished reputation as a religious scholar. Considered more of a pragmatist than Khomeini, Montazeri is also said to lack his mentor's charisma and oratorical skills. The timing of the announcement did not appear to coincide with any worsening of Khomeini's health. Last Saturday the Ayatullah stood in public for 30 minutes to deliver a speech marking the Prophet Muhammad...
Though the U.S. has banned arms sales to Iran since the outbreak of the hostage crisis in 1979, Washington has long suspected that American weapons are still finding their way to Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini's Shi'ite armies. Last week the Justice Department unveiled a web of smuggling plots that would have netted Iran $2.5 billion worth of U.S. equipment. Federal authorities filed conspiracy charges against 17 people, including a London-based American lawyer and a retired Israeli general. It was the biggest arms bust that the feds had ever staged...