Less visible but even more effective in shaping the Middle East was the life of Ruhollah Khomeini. After graduating from the Islamic seminary of the holy city of Qom, the future Ayatollah taught the Shariah, the Islamic Law, for many years and wrote numerous books on philosophy and mysticism. In 1963, he publicly denounced the government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and was thereby imprisoned for 8 months. Khomeini, already a recognized figure in Iranian politics, had originally been sentenced to death, but the Shah felt that his execution would anger the common people of Iran. Upon his release from prison, the Shah ordered him to leave the country.

Khomeini initially went to Turkey but was later allowed to move to Iraq, where he stayed until he was forced to leave in 1978 by the then Vice-President Saddam Hussein. Khomeini moved to France, where he became one of the most influential opponents to the rule of the Shah, and where he further became to be perceived as the spiritual leader of all those fighting Reza Pahlavi. During his exile, Khomeini wrote a book entitled Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists, where he laid out his three fundamental beliefs: 1) that all laws in an Islamic society should be based on the laws of God (Shariah); 2) that all laws and activities of the state should be monitored by clerical authorities on Islamic Law (the Mullahs, or guardians); and 3) that Islamic countries should become republics and not monarchies. Khomeini believed that the leader of an Islamic Republic should be a faqih (an Islamic jurist, who is also a member of the clergy), who should be selected by a group of clerics. The Supreme Leader, as the post is officially called, would have absolute secular and religious authority, and could only be removed from power by that very same group of clerics.

The book, furthermore, provides an insight on the eventual political background of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In short, after the success of the revolution, Khomeini replaced the monarchist government of the Shah with a theocratic system dominated by the clergy, with the approval of 98 percent of the voters sixteen years of age and older, who were called in a referendum to determine the question of accepting an Islamic Republic as the new form of government and constitution.

The history of Iran is tied to and intertwines with Western economic policies in the Middle East, especially those of the United States. Nearly three decades have passed since the leaders of Iran and those of the US have communicated openly, and with the war in Lebanon going on the prospects of talks between the two countries seem more remote than ever. This is so because opening talks with Iran at this time would confer legitimacy on Iranian leaders who, aside from their suspected desire to obtain nuclear weapons, deny Israel's right to exist and support Hezbollah, a terrorist organization.

Additionally, many experts believe that no matter what incentives the US or the world offer, Iran is determined to become a nuclear power. This fact alone raises the specter that the US - or even Israel if aided by the US - might take military action to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities. As much as this scenario causes shudders among European and Arab states allied with America, it is indeed not that incredible or farfetched, and the odds of a military intervention in Iran increase exponentially with every passing day that the conflict in Lebanon continues, and with each and every inflammatory statement and the rhetoric of confrontation that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seems to be so fond of dispensing.

The Hezbollah flags that we are increasingly beginning to see in demonstrations organized by Muslim communities in London, Paris and Rome, furthermore, are yet another reminder - especially to European nations - that the present confrontation in the Middle East may not be limited to the arid plains of Southern Lebanon.

Luigi Frascati