Word: ayatullah
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...thing, the decision to involve even low-level members of the former regime is deeply controversial among Iraq's majority Shi'ites, who suffered hugely at the hands of Baathists under Saddam. Brahimi has yet to secure the backing of Iraq's most important Shi'ite, Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani, who has so far refused to endorse any of the plans for creating a new Iraqi government. Brahimi has conferred with Sistani's son; Brahimi's spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, does not rule out the possibility that Sistani will demand guarantees that, among other things, the future government limit...
...charges that he mishandled U.S. funds and convicted in absentia in 1991 of bank fraud in Jordan--he has always maintained his innocence--has failed to shake his image as a carpetbagger. Polls show that in spite of his efforts to ingratiate himself with powerful figures like Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani, he remains the most mistrusted political figure in Iraq...
...vast majority of them successful: the economy is reviving, tens of thousands of Iraqis have returned from exile, oil production is near prewar capacity, the country is rebuilding. Did we make any mistakes? Of course we did. The most egregious being not giving enough protection to the pro-Western Ayatullah Abdul-Majid al-Khoei, who was murdered, most likely by followers of the now notorious Muqtada al-Sadr...
...their status by means of a very public possession of power. President George W. Bush is the pre-eminent example. Others, though they are rarely heard from in public, nonetheless have a real influence on the great events of our time. Think of Ali Husaini Sistani, the Grand Ayatullah of Iraq's Shi'ites, who in effect has a veto on plans to transfer power from those who occupy his country to its people. Still others affect our lives through their moral example. Consider Nelson Mandela's forgiveness of his captors and his willingness to walk away from the South...
According to U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials, Tehran's spymasters believe that once the transition to a new Iraqi government comes about, they will probably get what they want: the U.S. out and a pro-Iran, Shi'ite-led government in. Both the top Iraqi Shi'ite leader, Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani, and Iran's close ally on Iraq's interim Governing Council, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, will probably gain positions of influence after the U.S. hands over authority. A senior U.S. diplomat with experience in the region says Iran "will do everything it can to avoid confrontation...