As US and Europe eye a deal with Tehran, can its regime be trusted? Simon Tisdall
Aug 26, 2022
3 minutes
If any one man is to blame for gleeful Iranian crowing over the attack on Salman Rushdie, it is the country’s 83-year-old supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. The ayatollah’s bigoted, blinkered outlook has been poisoning the well of Iranian politics and society since he first took power in 1989. Kayhan, a newspaper known as Khamenei’s mouthpiece, praised Rushdie’s assailant, saying “his hands should be showered with kisses”. A jubilant headline declared: “Devil’s neck under the sword”.
While Iran denies responsibility for
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