Word: clericalism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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ARRESTED. Marco Mancini and Gustavo Pignero, officials with SISMI, Italy's military-intelligence agency; for involvement in the 2003 kidnapping in Milan of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, a radical Egyptian cleric suspected of ties to terrorism; in Milan. Italian prosecutors are also seeking the arrest of 26 Americans--most of them believed to be CIA operatives--in connection with the abduction of Nasr, who was spirited to Egypt, imprisoned and, he says, tortured under interrogation by U.S. agents about his terrorist ties...
...became Iran's religious leader in 1989 after the death of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. Because the Iranian Constitution grants the Supreme Leader veto power over the President's decisions, it is Khamenei who has the final say in high matters of state. As a result, the low-profile cleric--he shuns interviews with journalists--is the figure who will probably determine whether the nuclear dispute is resolved peacefully or hurtles Iran toward a confrontation with the U.S. and its allies...
...what does Khamenei want? In Tehran, speculation about the cleric's ambitions and the future of his partnership with Ahmadinejad is a parlor game of government insiders. Though Khomeini's doctrine of velayet-e faqih grants Khamenei divine right to rule, Khamenei is a breed apart from most Shi'ite mullahs, who still abide by premodern strictures. "He wears a watch," says an intimate, to illustrate how Khamenei differs from his fellow clerics. He hikes in jeans in Tehran's Alborz Mountains and plays the tar, a traditional Iranian stringed instrument. On religious issues, Khamenei is a conservative...
...cleric's allies are sensitive to the perception that Ahmadinejad's celebrity has caused a decline in the Supreme Leader's public profile. "He's not being overshadowed at all," says the official with close ties to Khamenei. But a senior Iranian official and a Western diplomat say Khamenei reprimanded Ahmadinejad for his declaration that Israel should be "wiped off the map," and analysts in Tehran say Khamenei is worried about Ahmadinejad's uneven management of domestic affairs. The Western diplomat says Ahmadinejad is still "on probation"; some Iranians speculate that his unpredictability may force Khamenei to replace him. Says...
Khamenei isn't likely to consent to giving up Iran's nuclear prerogatives without a price. The Bush Administration's agreement to join European-sponsored negotiations with Tehran is seen by Iranians as a major coup for Khamenei's hard-bargaining strategy. Those close to the cleric say he may ultimately be willing to agree to limits on Iran's nuclear program if direct talks with the U.S. lead to security guarantees and a lifting of the U.S. embargo on Iran. "The regime is dying to negotiate," says Jalaipour. Now Khamenei needs Washington to show it feels that...