"As a trainee correspondent for Reuters in Paris, I befriended exiled Iranian revolutionaries hanging out in the Latin Quarter in the months before Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was expelled from Iraq in 1978 and granted temporary asylum in France. Through those contacts, I was the first foreign journalist to interview Khomeini, a few days after he arrived in France and was installed in a modest suburban bungalow in Neauphle-le-Chateau, near Versailles."
"As I sat cross-legged on the floor opposite him, Khomeini barely acknowledged my presence, staring at the wall behind me as he spoke in a husky monotone. There would be no compromise with the shah, he said. Iran would become an Islamic republic. The US could do nothing to stop that."
A veteran journalist reflects on covering Iran's 1979 revolution that overthrew the US-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and established an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Khomeini. Drawing parallels to the French and Russian revolutions, the author recounts being the first foreign journalist to interview Khomeini in France before his return to Iran. During their meeting, Khomeini declared there would be no compromise with the shah and that Iran would become an Islamic republic regardless of US opposition. The author questions whether current events represent history repeating itself or whether Western powers are again attempting external regime change, echoing past strategic failures in Iran.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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