Interview With an Ayatollah

The New York Times - When it comes to Iranian clerics, Grand Ayatollah Youssef Saanei has long defied convention. Over the years, he has issued edicts that uphold women’s rights. He also preaches what in this society is a reformist political line and advocates rapprochement between Iran and the United States.

It’s little wonder, then, that during the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who promoted a hardline anti-American and anti-Israeli agenda, Grand Ayatollah Saanei was largely sidelined. He was prevented by the state from meeting journalists and his books on religious topics were not allowed to be reprinted or sold. When he condemned the violent crackdown on the Green Movement democracy protests — after the disputed 2009 election — his house was attacked by men who, he believes, could not have acted “without being related to some power people.”

But now that reform-minded President Hassan Rouhani has been elected, Mr. Saanei has again been allowed to receive journalists and speak out.

In his first interview in at least four years, he told Time and The New York Times on Wednesday through an interpreter that Mr. Ahmadinejad had damaged Iran but harmed Islam even more because “he introduced Islam as the religion of oppression and suppression inside the country” and also as a force for “animosity and violence and fighting outside the country.”

Grand Ayatollah Saanei said he was the only cleric to back Mr. Rouhani before the June election. But now that voters have put him in office other clerics are beginning to support Mr. Rouhani as well. “Now I believe there is hope and we hope that things that are good for the people, for the nation, will happen,” Grand Ayatollah Saanei said.

The cleric endorsed the nuclear deal among Iran, the United States and other major powers and, invoking the late Nelson Mandela, he said that, “today the people in power in Iran and the people in power in the United States should forgive each other, should forget the past and start the friendship.”

Beyond the nuclear agreement and economic reforms, Grand Ayatollah Saanei said that Mr. Rouhani has an obligation to fulfill the demands of voters by pushing for expanded freedoms, including advocating for the release of political prisoners (not something directly under his control).

Unlike many in Iran, Grand Ayatollah Saanei doesn’t dismiss out of hand the possibility that one day Iran could make some kind of accommodation with Israel, although he said Israelis would first have to “get rid of their dangerous objectives and beliefs.”

Grand Ayatollah Saanei is among the Iranian leaders who are crucial to building and sustaining broad popular support for a possible rapprochement between Iran and the West. But hardliners are determined to thwart any progress. The government’s willingness to continue allowing Grand Ayatollah Saanei to speak out frankly will be an important barometer of the health of Iran’s reform movement.