Response to BBC Report: Ayatollah Khomeini's Office Denies His Correspondence with John F. Kennedy

Hamid Ansari, the deputy of the "Institute for the Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works," reacted on Thursday, June 3, to the BBC report regarding a letter from Ayatollah Khomeini to John F. Kennedy, the then President of the United States, in mid-November 1963, in which he allegedly sought to support U.S. interests in Iran. He stated, "Their claim has no legal validity or documentation." According to the BBC, based on a classified CIA document titled "Islam in Iran," "Ruhollah Khomeini, after several months of imprisonment in Qasr prison and house arrest in Qeytarieh, Tehran, quietly messages the Kennedy administration in mid-November 1963 to ensure that his verbal attacks are not misinterpreted, as he supports U.S. interests in Iran." The document explains that "he has no opposition to U.S. interests in Iran. On the contrary, he believed that the U.S. presence in Iran was necessary to create a balance against the Soviet Union and possibly British influence." The CIA declassified the report in 2005, but several sensitive parts, including the paragraph regarding Ayatollah Khomeini's message, were censored. In December 2008, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library released the complete version of this document. In response to the publication of this letter in a report aired on Wednesday, June 2, Hamid Ansari added, "There are still adversaries and enemies of the revolution, and those who opposed the fall of the Pahlavi regime in Iran are thinking of revenge against the revolution and its great founder. Since they are still concerned about the popularity of Imam Khomeini (RA) after 37 years of the revolution, it is not surprising to fabricate such baseless documentaries." After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Mr. Khomeini adopted a strongly anti-American policy and even supported the students who occupied the U.S. embassy. This led to the severance of U.S.-Iran relations, a move welcomed by the then-leader of the Islamic Republic, which continues decades later. Previously, the BBC had also published a document of a letter from Ayatollah Khomeini to Jimmy Carter, in which "Ayatollah Khomeini explicitly asks the Carter administration to use its influence to reconsider the military's position, a shift that, according to the leader of the revolution, would also serve U.S. interests."